Bird Washing 101, the NO SOLVENT method

[Indigo]

Wow!! This is an excellent thread....Thank you Nancy, and to everyone else for their hints and tips! Teaching myself is ok, but its great to have some one with experience who is happy to share it!

[byrdman]

have run some tests here and I will continue to use gas on waterfowl..just dry too slow and skin will still have an oily "feel" even after nancys methods....but on upland .even fatty pheasants.....gas seemed to make no diff except a few minutes of drying time...so for me...gas the ducks.....rinse the upland....since I do about an equal number of each, at least half the time I am being "healthy"

[oldmantwo]

Have any of you tried a little fabric softener in your rinse water to get the dawn out? I use it and it seems to help get the soap off the skin and feathers without having to rinse so many times. I am curious if anyone else uses this on their birds. I know too well what the feathers look like if they aren't soap free and it has helped me on everything from parrots, to doves, to waterfowl and turkeys. Hope this helps someone.

[whitetailtaxidermist]

Got a freezer full of gifted birds, looking forward to starting by using this method...Since I've never done either method, I guess I'll start with this and see what happens!  By the way, how did you get the owl's at the end of your posts???