failing miserably at potty training

[aasiaafzal]

guys i have a CAG, named 'jazz'...abt 7-9 months old roughly ..he is with me for abt 4 weeks now...!! its my first bird, n im trying my best to have a healthy pet, with some decent manners to show off:) ...having said that,..the issue is that im failing miserably...lol

need to ask a few questions...

1. is there a specific age before which parrots cant be potty trained? like in humans bed wetting is considered normal before 5..

2. the issue is that 'jazz' follows a much varied frequency of pooping, so thats why im unable to follow the simple rule of ''putting the bird back to his poop place, after a fixed time,n getting him up again, after he has pooped''....

when he is on the perch of his cage, he takes abt 30 min btw his poops, but as soon as he climbs down on the carpet, he wud poop after every 5 minutes, (much to my mom's annoyance)...initially i just let him do it, thinking that he is adjusting, n so young, n i wud keep on cleaning his mess later on but then i realized he is developing this habit...so now when i see him doing that wriggly sort of dance, i run n try to put him back on the perch..sometimes, he just does it quickly:), sometimes he just gets scared, n would quickly go n climb up the cage...( which makes me think that i am conveying the wrong msg, n badly affecting our bonding).., n other times, i mange to put him back..but the thing is that after he is safely on his perch, he wud not poop at all....n would try again when he comes down...
when i put him back on perch, i try to wait until he has pooped, but he wud take so much time, that eventually i forget ...n after a while i notice him climbing down again, n trying to do it on the carpet...
May be the issue is that his perch is on the top of his cage, n he doesnt like to poop in his cage, if he can avoid.??

he was clipped since he came to me, so if i buy a separate perch, he wouldnt be able to go there on his own will...

3. my 3rd question is that i was thinking of getting bird diapers for him,for occasional use, will this affect his training at this stage?

[marie83]

I've never potty trained a bird but personally I would never even consider it with a clipped bird. I feel they need the freedom to go to their potty whenever they need to as otherwise they may hold onto it for longer than is healthy if they aren't taken to their potty.
Of course if they badly need to go then they will do anyway but the way I see it is there are potential bad effects on every other animal from holding on to their own waste -water infections, constipation etc so why can we assume its not causing damage or a higher risk of illness in a bird? I've never seen any evidence in birds either way, just speculating and drawing conclusions from humans primarily but some other animals too. At the very least it may be uncomfortable for the bird and I dont think thats fair.

[aasiaafzal]

hey marie83, how r u? i was following up on that journal of urs...n i really appreciate your whole courage n the strength u r showing...i really hope that ollie gets better soon,..my very best wishes...!!

ur point seems valid, but to prevent him from holding i was trying to train him to poop on his perch on the top of cage, where he stays for most of the day...( so there is no issue of not being able to reach the place ) but he is insisting on pooping on the carpet...

besides i dont plan to keep him clipped...n he is growing his feathers soon, so thats why i wanted to start the training...he has already started taking short flights, obviously not very balanced...just kinda crashing here n there..but i have noticed some pin feathers too...

btw do u recommend bird diapers then??

lets c what others have to say..!!

[Michael]

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1758

Using my method usually takes 6 months to a year before you start seeing any visible results. It's more of a strategy with a bonus of potty training on a potty perch. Kili has take to it very well but Truman is still pretty bad. I do think younger birds do worse with it. Still, it's rare they poop on me and I can usually get them to only go off their perches. It won't be perfect but will be better than nothing.

[aasiaafzal]

hey michael, thanx a lot for replying....,appreciate ur help
n i have already read this article of urs....

i am also not aiming for perfection, but as u said, something is better than nothing...

however i m lost as i dont know when he will want to poop..he has such variable frequency..goes for an hr without pooping on his perch on the top of cage....but as soon as he comes down starts pooping so frequently...n as i cant guess the time, i have to rush when i see him wriggling..n he gets scared...

infact i have a feeling that sometimes he just climbs down the cage only to poop, n goes back up again:) which is exactly the opposite of what i am aiming for..!!

plz advice me on, what should i use as potty for a clipped parrot?? should it be his own cage top, or anything different considering he is hesitant to poop in his cage? or should i just leave the project until he learns to fly/...sorry for a lot of questions....

[marie83]

and likewise I see your point. How is your bird with news/paper? maybe you could place some on the floor for the time being, the plus is that newspaper is easily available so if you ever take your bird out and about you will still be able to give him something familiar to poop on, wheras you cant take his whole cage out with you.

[janetafloat]

+1
That's a good idea Marie. I can understand your difficulty, aasiaafzal, especially as it's not your carpet he's pooping on! However, you mentioned that your rushing to move your bird when you think he's about to poop is frightening him, which it will. Birds don't take well to sudden movements. You really need to find another approach that isn't going to make him afraid or uncomfortable with you, as that's going to have a lot more long term implications that him not being potty trained. Try the newspaper or, if he doesn't like walking on that, perhaps get a couple of sheets from a charity shop and put one those on the floor when your bird is out. They can be washed, unlike carpet.
Good luck! Let us know how you get on

[Eric&Rebecca]

When you see him wriggling just pop a piece of paper under him rather than rushing him back to the perch. That's what we did with our bird. As Marie says if he learns to poop on the same thing all the time you can eventually just leave a piece out and he will poop on that... maybe...

Birds poop.. it's just one of those things I guess. Our previous cockatiel would always fly back tothe cage to poop and the budgie before that would just go anytime and anywhere no matter what we did. This one is very hit and miss... literally! It's not a problem necessarily we just keep an eye on where he poops and clean with bird disinfectant once he back in the cage.

After a few birds we have just had to accept they poop!