Currently, I have four macaws stranded in my bedroom. Three of them are handicapped and the . . . more]]> Work time without the shopping part: approximately an hour (less if unlike me you don’t have to file the holes larger … ).
Total cost: Just shy of €43
Fun for beloved birdies: unmeasurable

Currently, I have four macaws stranded in my bedroom. Three of them are handicapped and the fourth one, Sam, is the mate to one the females.
In particular Sam loves bathing. In my bird hall I have huge bathing bowls set-up. Since the hall has floor drains it is easy to service them. I simply lift-up and tip the bowls over, before scrubbing and filling them with fresh water. Here is a video of some of my birds bathing in one of those bowls.

In the bedroom I have no floor drains (quel surprise :-)) and to make things worse the floors are wood.
But I still want to give the birds there a chance to bathe.

What to do?

So I had the idea of taking one of the huge bowls and outfitting it with some sort of draining system which would make it possible to drain the water into a pail positioned underneath the bowl. For this, of course, the bowl would need to be somehow elevated. Voilá – a bathing table.
First I visited the local hardware store, gardening center and IKEA (cheap table) for hours to see what ingredients they might provide that I could use. I found a large planter dish that can be used as a bathing bowl on sale (€13.99) in the gardening center. In the hardware story I bought a sink drain set (€3.89). Then I went to IKEA and found a cheap table (€25) that had a melamine table top. Thus, it would be easy to clean, somewhat water resistant but still workable for me to saw a big hole out of. Here is a step by step guide of how exactly I built my bathing table:

1. Saw hole into bowl

In my collection of assorted hardware stuff I found this hole sawing attachment for my power drill. Unfortunately it was still a bit too small for what I needed. So after making the initial hole, I had to enlarge it with a big file, until the drain set fit.

Photo: Ann Castro My power drill with a special attachment to drill large holes	Photo: Ann Castro You need to support the bowl or else the plastic may crack when you drill the hole	Photo: Ann Castro Carefully drill the hole into the plastic bowl
Photo: Ann Castro The hole is too small to fit the drain.	Photo: Ann Castro Enlarging the hole with a file	Photo: Ann Castro Now the hole fits the drain

2. Smooth back of planter dish

When I tried fitting the drain set I noticed it did not seal properly, because of thick ridges the planter had on its backside. So I needed to get rid of those, too.

Photo: Ann Castro Now it is even.

Photo: Ann Castro Now it is even.

Photo: Ann Castro Smooth the area around the hole so that the drain will seal tight when assembled.

3. Assemble drain set on planter hole

Assembling the drain set on the planter hole was really easy. The important thing is to screw it super tight so that the drain will not leak.

Photo: Ann Castro Fitting the drain into the hole.	Photo: Ann Castro Positioning the gasket.	Photo: Ann Castro Positioning drain
Photo: Ann Castro Positioning the screw.	Photo: Ann Castro Tightening the screw.	Photo: Ann Castro This is what it looks like with the drain stopper.

4. Assemble IKEA table per instructions

Ha, that was easy and for a change I got it right the first time.

Photo: Ann Castro Assembling inexpensive IKEA table

5. Mark hole for the drain set into the table

Photo: Ann Castro Positioning Bathing Bowl	Photo: Ann Castro Mark x-axis position
Photo: Ann Castro Mark y-axis position	Photo: Ann Castro Connect the dots.

6. Sawing the hole

After I marked where I wanted the drain to go, I sawed a hole into it with that same too-small tool that I used before.

Sawing the hole into the table

7. Enlargening the hole

Enlargening the hole with the hand file was real work. Ugh … it really helps to have the proper tools when doing it yourself. My arm was sore for days afterwards.

Photo: Ann Castro Enlarge hole in table to fit the drain unit	Photo: Ann Castro Drain unit does not fit, yet.
Photo: Ann Castro Enlarge hole some more	Photo: Ann Castro Now it fits and the bowl sits flat on the table

8. Testing

I had the brilliant idea to test the leak proofedness of my set-up on the tile floor before dragging it upstairs into the bird – ummm – bedroom. Drat it leaks. Not much but a very slow drip. After thorough analysis – I crawled under the table to see where exactly the water comes from – I found that it is not the drain that isn’t sealing, but rather the plug.
I replaced the plug with another one I had and it improved the drip massively. It is still not completely gone though. I guess in a sink it does not matter to have some slow dripping, as it goes down the drain. Well until I find a plug that is really tight, I will simply have to use the table with a pail underneath to catch any drips. I just hope that my rambunctious birdies don’t get on the floor and knock the bucket over …

Photo: Ann Castro Filling water into the bathing dish

Of course after I had done and tested it all, I realized it was impossible for me to lug the thing upstairs by myself. Thus, I had to take it all apart again and then reassemble it in the bird room

Unfortunately my photo with the birdies didn’t turn out well. But you can see they are inspecting their new bathing table.

Bird testing