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Bath water is primarily for washing. Water mobilizes or dissolves waste of cutaneous origin (spasms of the skin, that is to say the dead parts of the epidermis in continual renewal), and those coming from the plumage (dried secretions of the uropygial gland - feather fragments). The removal of this waste is in fact necessary for the “cutaneous respiration” of the pigeon, whose skin, highly irrigated by numerous blood vessels, is very permeable. Poisoning following excessive application of certain insecticide ointments or liquids demonstrates this perfectly (in the treatment of scabies or syringophillus in particular).
This diffuse permeability of the skin which does not contain sweat glands (sweat) is essential. In the same vein, maintaining the water content of the plumage, a guarantee of its flexibility and resistance, requires regular exposure to water (rain or baths).
Finally, the supply of humidity is essential to the embryo during the incubation period. In periods of great drought (and heat) or in particularly dry dovecotes (attic with chimney), the embryo gradually dehydrates, as do the egg membranes that surround it. At the time of hatching, the embryo, weakened by this dehydration, must split shriveled membranes. So much so that many fail to emerge from the egg and “die on the scale”. The provision of humidity by the parents' plumage after bathing is therefore often necessary, and never superfluous.
You can add all kinds of things to bath water. There is tradition, commerce and science.
Tradition is a handful of salt in the bath. It seems that it repels lice. This is, of course, a joke. A handful of salt in 10 L of water makes about 5 - 6 grams per liter, that is to say less than the pigeon's blood (9-10 g/l) which is contained in it. feed the tickets for example. At most it has an impact on the ionic balance of the water (calcium-sodium balance).
The commercial ones are these “bath salts” based on sodium borate, generally flavored with pine extracts. Here too there is a “softening” of the bath water, generally hard. Pine extracts have a repellent influence on lice (we know that coniferous wood is never attacked by insects) but do not kill them. And as the lice must find a host very quickly, they leave the pigeon in the evening (they flee the light) to go...to another. The result is therefore generally doubtful.
We address the problem of bath appetite with pine salts, with their typical odor. Let us first recognize that the smell given to different products has two main destinations: in medicines, to mask an unpleasant smell or taste
(as much and often more for the amateur than for the pigeons), in other products, give the loft a pleasant smell (anise in the grit-perfume in the white, etc...) The pigeons get used to it very well , and I would even say that once they get used to it, they are disoriented when they no longer find it. But at the beginning there may be some hesitation to drink (you have to hold them in the loft) or to enter the bath. This is not serious, rare in fact, and should not influence the attitude of the amateur in the choice of his additive in the water.
What do we want from this product?
We are looking for better “physical” protection of the plumage, so that it is more resistant to rain, for example. The use of silicone products having not given the expected results until now, we stick to talc which, suspended in bath water, is deposited in small quantities, regularly on the plumage, giving it silkiness and “slippery” in water. We are also looking for the elimination of plumage parasites: lipures (narrow and long lice on the beards) which pierce the beards along the shaft of the flight feathers. syringophillus which causes the feathers on the crop to break in spring, menopon, a large white louse which lives in colonies under the wings and under the rump.
This is why we take advantage of the bath to 'line' the plumage with an insecticide. This must of course be harmless to pigeons (which do not hesitate to occasionally drink bath water, perfumed or not) and active against a maximum of parasites. All good bath products now combine all these qualities and it's crazy who wouldn't use them.
Insecticides are most of the time insoluble in water, so they are dispersed (the water takes on a “milky” appearance) and not dissolved. As these same insecticides are soluble in other products (alcohol-petroleum ether-oil etc...) some amateurs have tried to use these solutions, hoping to have a better action. Unfortunately the “organic solvent” which most often dissolves the “varnish” coming from the uropygial gland which permeates the plumage.
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