Can older birds be toilet trained?

[k9shrink]

Hi,

The books I've read say that parrots poop every 30 minutes or so, and that they "naturally" won't poop on people.

I'm always amazed at the photos I've seen of parrot owners whose birds sit on their shoulders for walks... bird club meetings... or sit on laps, apparently for hours, watching TV...

What I don't understand is whether the birds aren't pooping, or whether they are pooping, and the owners simply change shirts a few times an hour. If the former, are they not pooping because they've been trained? Or do some parrots just naturally avoid pooping on people, the way my pet rats always did. Are the birds on some kind of diet where they only poop the standard "once every 30 minutes"?

Thanks,

Sharon in Istanbul

Who has just started toilet-training her adopted street cat using the Litter Qwitter system...

[Michael]

How often do you feed your birds?

I have several techniques for improving but not necessarily eliminating this situation. First off my parrots eat twice a day so their poop is concentrated to more specific periods. Secondly I potty train them to poop when I put them down on a parrot training perch. Both of my parrots hold it in at night so in the morning the first thing I do is let them out onto a training perch and let them relieve themselves. This creates a habit of pooping specifically there as it is daily routine. This is one of the most guaranteed times to have them poop on command cause they are just about ready to go anyway.

Not sure if you read my potty training article, but the rest of what I can recommend it contained in there.

[Giantmoa]

hmm, my gcc has this specific squawky noise she makes when she is on me and has to poop (she'll just poop when she is anywhere else though, no warning). I'll get up and bring her to her cage to relieve herself. I didn't specifically teach her to do this though...

[k9shrink]

Hi guys,

Michael, I hadn't found your potty training article, but I just read it. The video is sure impressive! Okay, I'll get to work on it right away.

BTW, I'm home all day (work as a writer), and Clover has access to food and foraging toys all day long. She will just barely eat pellets--and it's taken 2 years to get her to even nibble them. She wants her home-made mash with 27 ingredients, plus bits of seeds and nuts hidden in her foraging toys. I think the mash makes her a "poopy girl," (as she calls herself), because she's one of those every 5 minutes pooping birds. I can't wait for her feathers to finish growing out so she can learn to fly to a perch to poop instead of doing it on me.

Sharon in Istanbul

[entrancedbymyGCC]

They don't poop in their nests (at least GCCs don't) so they can "hold it" for more than 30 minutes. Also, like horses, they seem to have a "bombs away!" response when startled. Scooter now rarely poops on me unless I forget to give him an opportunity to poop elsewhere or ignore his attempts to get my attention and let me know he needs to. When we first got him, he just went every 20 minutes or so, but we'd put him down on a playstand or cage and clean up, and just from that he learned he'd be less interrupted if he waited until we set him over paper or on his playstand or cage. The only thing I did consciously to train him was to pick him back up promptly if he did poop when I put him down, and to praise him.

[Kaicho]

Just thought I'd post this video.... if a 5 month old baby CAG can learn it, then I would assume an older CAG could learn it just as easily.

[thegreatkatsby]

I have always loved the idea of a potty-trained parrot, but I have read concerns that the bird might over-dehydrate itself trying to please the owner. Any thoughts on why potty-training might or might not be harmful in some situations?