| I thought it would be fun to share with you how we prepare our birds for a show. I had to learn along the way, asking many questions. So, I hope this helps some of you folks preparing for your first shows or even 4H. This is how we prepare OUR birds, many people use different methods,this works for us:) In the following pictures we are using our white cochin cockerel. All though he may take a few extra steps to prepare, we use most of these steps with our other breeds too, including the silkies. I will have pictures on how to prepare silkies too, it's just not quite done yet:) I will add any tips or tricks as time goes on:) |
| Items you will need •Needle nose pliers •Emory Board •Toe nail clippers •Scissors •Old toothbrush •Q-Tips •VetRX or Hand Lotion •Small pair of wire cutters •Stop blood powder •Hartz flea and tick spray for dogs •Dawn dish washing soap •Adams or Hartz flea and tick shampoo •Dog whitening shampoo (for white birds only) •White vinegar •Old Towels •Blow Dryer |
Preparing For Show
| Their are a few things we do before we wash, this is one of them. We trim the "long hairs" that grow next to the comb they call these eye brows. Just follow the contour of the comb. This gives a nice, neat look to the head. |
| Next, we always trim the beak, here we are using finger nail clippers. You can use toenail clippers or even a small pair of wire cutters. I found the wire cutters, clips it very easily. Then we take a emery board and smooth off any rough edges. You want the beak to look natural. You don't want anything hanging over the bottom part of the beak. A nice neat look is what your after. Have stop blood powder on hand for this task, beaks will bleed profusely if cut to short, keep that in mind when trimming. Follow the natural curve of the beak. |
| We also use the small wire cutters to cut the toenails. They work great cutting through a thick toenail. Make sure you don't cut to short, it's easy to do, keep your stop blood powder handy for this task as well. We trim them back, short, but not really close to the vein. Then we use the emery board to file the toenail into it's natural shape, which is round and not flat on the tip. Some people use dog toenail clippers, or human toenail clippers for this task. |
| Next we use needle nose pliers to pull any broken foot or wing or tail feathers. You want to get right at the base of the feather to do this. Some folks prefer to cut the feather, then go back a week or so later and pull it out. We don't do it that way, but it works great. I prefer to do this task several weeks before a planned show. That way it will have plenty of time to grow back. We never pull any broken wing feathers if it's right before a show. It's better to have a broken wing feather, then a missing one. Foot feathers, are a little different, we do pull a broken one if it's broken before the show. |
| Next it's bath time. We use warm water and Dawn dish washing soap to start. Suds them up real good. The Dawn cuts the oil in the feathers and gets them nice and soapy. We give them a good wash in the Dawn, then rinse completely in cooler water. |
| Next we use a flea and tick shampoo to kill any mice of lice that are alive on the body. Note: this shampoo will NOT kill eggs, just lives. Adams flea and tick shampoo for dogs works really nice for this. Make sure they are rinsed really well, in cool water. |
| Next step we use whitening shampoo for dogs. This is an extra step for our white birds. This is not necessary for colored birds. Suds up, wash any discolored areas real well with this. It does do a nice job. Some folks prefer to use "bluing" in their final rinse to get birds really white. I prefer not to use it. To be quite frank.....it scares me. If you get to much your water, it can turn your beautiful white bird blue. It will NOT come out either until they moult it out. So if you use bluing be very careful not to over do it. |
| Before the final rinse with vinager we scrub the comb, wattles and feet really good. Make sure they are nice and clean. It makes the comb and wattles nice and red and the feet really clean. |
| Last step, we add a little white vinegar in the rinse water. This will "cut" the suds, and get any soap left behind from washing. It really works great. Your birds will feel squeaky clean:) Really:) |
| Next we wrap them up in an old towel. We like to wrap them up and let them sit for about 10 minutes, the towel does nice job, pulling some of the water out of the feathers. They seem to like it too. |
| Now we blow dry. We start at the cushion and move forward, into the hackle. We do not dry the birds on high. If it's to hot it can damage the feathers especially the tail So be careful when drying it's not to hot. |
| Here Kinsey is working on drying the wing. If it's a nice warm day outside we prefer to let them finish drying outside. If it's warm and sunny, with a little breeze, they will dry in no time. We wash our cochins 2 days before a show, then put them on wire. We want to make sure they are completely dry before a show. Heavily feathered birds like cochins have a lot of under fluff that takes time to get it good and dry. |
| Here's Lewis drying outside in the warm sun. He really likes it:) And, he drys really fast:) |
| We apply hand lotion or VetRx to the comb and wattles before the show. We use Q-Tips for this task, or you can rub it in with your finger. It gives them really makes that comb nice and red, that's what you want:) |
| Here's Kinsey with Lewis. He won Champion Featherleg and Reserve Champion Bantam at the Kentuckiana Show last year 06. So clean them up and make them look their best when you head to a show. Kinsey's hard work really paid off this day. |
| Here's Lewis with his trophy. What a great day! As you can see, he is in excellent condition. |
