What do you wash your Polish crests with?

[dappertophatter]

At the county fair, my girls' poultry leader was gushing over HRH Princess Bonnet von Hathat's (real, registered name, BTW) snowy white crest, and she asked my DD what she used to wash her crest with.

DD said "Plain 'ol Ivory soap. What do you use?"

The leader went on to say how she used all these different hairdressing chemicals to get her flock's crest as white as possible, different brands of expensive shampoo, and assorted other stuff I can't remember.

In DD's defense, her head wasn't that dirty- if you have a filthy crest, do you use something a bit stronger?

Which brings me to my question- What do YOU use to wash your Polish heads with?

 

[dappertophatter]

Anybody? I'm REALLY curious about this!

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

I wash mine with what I wash the bird's body with; baby shampoo.

This year I exhibited my White Sultan and the judge pointed out that for future referance, I could add bluing liquid to white feathered birds to make the feathers brighter. Otherwise, he didn't say that the head should have been taken care of with a seperate type of 'soap' and it even surprised me that he didn't point out that liquid dish soap would have been better. Different people will use different stuff. It's just personal preferance.

I have to agree, though, that depending on the bird, that crest may have been dragged through all sorts of stuff and may carry a brownish, dirty color. But my birds have always been kept in conditions in which they didn't get it dirty. But if they did, I maintain that bluing would probably help, and I plan to do this next time. But ONLY on white birds.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

My polish birds crests pretty much stay white--I never have had a problem with that except maybe a feather or two.

I, too usually use baby shampoo (or dog flea/tick shampoo). I do NOT like using dish soap as it takes out too much of the oil that a bird's feathers need. Ditto for laundry detergent, although I have been told that tide w/ bleach alternative is good at removing stains. I do not use bluing--too easy to turn a bird blue. I've tried various shampoos that already contain bluing (such as the ones for ladies with grey hair or for white dogs or horses)--they are VERY likely to turn a white bird purple, so I do not use those, either.

Parrot shampoo is super at cleaning and giving a natural shine to the feathers, as it does not remove any of the oil, and may actually supplement it, but it is far more costly than generic baby shampoo.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

By the way--HOW do you register a chicken? There is no registry.

 

[dappertophatter]

By the way--HOW do you register a chicken? There is no registry.

HRH Princess Bonnet von Hathat is registered with 4-H as DD's project chicken.

Thanks guys! Parrot shampoo is a really good idea- Ivory soap worked fine for us, so we'll proably stick with that.

My ladies stay sort-of clean, escpecially since I've been locking them in the coop in muddy conditions- we like to pretend we're ducks.