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How to Potty Train Parrot

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Re: How to Potty Train Parrot

Postby Parrotkeeper02 » Tue Oct 13, 2015 4:01 am

One of my lorikeets larry poops when he doesn't want to do something like yesterday I waited till he pooped and then took him over to my mum to perch onn and since larry hasn't really socialised with her larry pooped on my mum :D then this little girl from next door wanted larry to go on her shoulder and larry pooped :D But hasn't pooped one me since last year. So he is using pooping to say no
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Too Often / Poop Spamming

Postby SoManyCakes » Thu Feb 11, 2016 3:32 pm

I have a totally different problem. My two White Bellied Caiques are potty trained and poop at a specific perch but unless they are very interested/busy with something else they go there every 2 minutes to squeeze out a tiny little droplet to get treats. If I don't treat them they loose interest and start pooping wherever. It's almost like I'm their robotic treat slave. Would love for them to poop at a normal interval like my other potty trained birds :/ (two Green Cheeks).
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Re: How to Potty Train Parrot

Postby seagoatdeb » Wed Jul 06, 2016 5:44 pm

My Red Belly is fairly potty trained even though my only training was to wipe the poop off me and she learned from that. With my newest parrot Sunny he pooped on me all the time, but he also just learned not to poop on me on his own this week, so hoping I remain mostly poop free...lol
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Re: How to Potty Train Parrot

Postby Laurie Feldman » Fri Sep 06, 2019 4:27 am

Hi everybody, I THINK I'm in the right thread. I have read a LOT of pros and mostly cons about this topic, so be gentle. Our 13 year old senegal was 11 months, basically a rescue; we'd watched him sitting alone in a cage with no toys, nothing, no people, for months and months and couldn't take it anymore, and brought him home. He pretty much trained HIMSELF about pooping in or on his cage, or on his play area. We really did nothing to encourage him one way or another. The only thing I did was to encourage him to poop in his cage before being let out, and he learned the words (we are italian) "Fai la cacca poi esci" (do your poop then come out), and very quickly learned to poop first thing, then come out. He flies into the bedroom at 12:30 or 1PM, to the curtain rod, and sleeps about an hour, then calls to be taken down (he doesn't fly OUT of the bedroom, only IN). Then he poops on top of his cage. I've taken the curtains down once a year for many years and only found maybe 2 poops there. When he is with us, he flies back to the cage to poop. We did nothing to encourage this, he just learned it.

I understand the foolishness of forcing them to go in a particular place, or on command (what if we die and they are re-homed, by example?). Now we have a 4.5 month old baby girl. I'm only wanting her, for now, to poop before I let her out of the cage. So far, no success; in fact she'll hold it for almost an hour while fussing to come out, then the first thing she does is poop on the table where I put her morning vegetables for her to forage. I don't want to force ANYTHING with her and maybe she is too young to learn this. The big boy couldn't possibly hold it for an hour in the morning, he does it within 5 minutes of waking up.

Thanks for any guidance, Laurie
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Re: How to Potty Train Parrot

Postby Pajarita » Fri Sep 06, 2019 8:53 am

I am sorry but I cannot help you with this, Laurie. For one thing, none of my birds is potty trained so I have no personal experience whatsoever on this and, for another, I think it's terribly unhealthy for them to hold their poop. We have a member that had to pay thousands of dollars for cloaca collapse reconstruction on one of her birds because of potty training. Birds' metabolism is too fast (they poop every 20 minutes or so, on average) and they evacuate both urine and poop together so holding it is actually very unhealthy for them.

Personally, poop is not something that bothers me. Yes, I do have to scrape it off the floors every morning before I mop them and cover my tables with plastic and my sofas with old quilts as well as carry paper towels with me all the time they are out because they also poop on me :lol: but it doesn't smell, it scrapes off very easily once it's dried and it dissolves very easily with water so, in my opinion, it's a very small inconvenience if one measures it against a potential serious health issue that one could cause. I do NOT take risks with my birds health - not ever.
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Re: How to Potty Train Parrot

Postby Laurie Feldman » Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:31 am

Thanks, Pajarita, I completely understand your point of view. I want to make sure to say that You-You does not ever hold his poop. He flies to his cage and does it on top, or to his play area. He taught himself this completely on his own. We just say "bravo" when he does it but there is no reward system nor incentive for him. He will not stay on a lap or in one of our work spaces if he has to go. He flies to his spot and does it. The only behavior I encouraged was pooping before coming out in the morning, which I'd love to do with the baby as well.
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Re: How to Potty Train Parrot

Postby Pajarita » Fri Sep 06, 2019 12:26 pm

Yes, I understood that you had not really trained You-You to do this. But, personally, I would not even encourage him with the simple 'Bravo!' and I will tell you why. This is not in any way a criticism, I see exactly why you do it and, in all honesty, I might have done the same thing, but I have come to see things from the point of view that one should not encourage or train to behaviors that might not work out in a different environment because, in my mind and statistically speaking, rehoming is pretty much a reality in the pet parrot world and a LOT of birds end up in sanctuaries or in homes where they live cage-free. My own Sweetpea Senegal lived cage-free for several years until we moved to this house where we did not have a very large birdroom so the smaller species needed to be separate from the large ones. The large species 'won' and they have the birdroom while the smaller ones are in cages for the night and a few hours in the pm. What would You-You do if there was no cage to poop in? Would he hold it or would he go? My worry is that he would hold it...
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Re: How to Potty Train Parrot

Postby Laurie Feldman » Fri Sep 06, 2019 2:56 pm

I take your point. I'm going to assume he would poop. But I see what you mean. We have very strict directives in place for the time that, if we both die, they would be re-homed. And I know the people who would take them. Here in Italy it is not so easy. Most Senegql Parrot people here live in France. These people have known You-You all his life - he has stayed with them when we are away and love him very much. He adores them. Still, I completely get what you are saying.
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