Inadvertent potty training

[Navre]

Every morning when the sun wakes the bird, I take her out. Once we get into the kitchen, she poops her giant morning poop on the tiles in the kitchen. It's easy to clean up there and it's just what we've always done.

I have noticed that if I get her a few minutes late, say I take a shower first and then go get her, she still poops her giant morning poop when we get into the kitchen.

Today I was having windows replaced in the house. The workers got here at 7 and started removing windows. The bird had to stay in the cage. She got her gloop in the cage this morning and happily ate it.

I just took her out of the cage, (about 2 1/2 hours after sunrise) and she still did her giant morning poop as soon as we got into the kitchen.

I'm afraid that I have accidentally potty trained her, and she holds that first poop untilI take her out. The rest of the day she poops wherever she is, about every 10 minutes. I'm afraid that holding that poop could hurt her. What if I'm not here and she doesn't get let out at all?

[Wolf]

I understand what you mean as Kookooloo has changed he pooping to where she will not poop on me or while she is out of her cage and near me and it is just so easy to forget to put her in or on her cage every 10 to 15 minutes. I wonder if your bird has to do it in the kitchen or if taking her out of the cage would prove to be enough. However there is only one way to find out this for sure so that you can work on changing the behavior.
I think that I would work on the assumption that she has potty trained herself and start changing it. Perhaps getting her to poop on something like newspaper would work. I use newspaper on the bottom of my birds cages and that is why I suggested using it. If you also use newspaper for litter in her cage that may be all that you need to do.

[Navre]

It's just odd because it's only her morning poop that she seems to hold. After that she can, and does, poop on everything.

[Pajarita]

Oh, geez, poor thing, holding it for hours! But, yes, that's what doing always the same thing ends up been: training them without meaning to. Why don't you just open her cage first thing and allow her to come out on her own so she would end up pooping around her cage so she doesn't feel she has to hold it until you take her out and bring her into the kitchen?

[Navre]

She will fly into the kitchen as soon as she can. It's only a few feet away. She will occasionally poop on her play stand out there, just never the morning poop in the cage.

My main concern is those times when I leave the house before sunup. It's going to happen more often as sunrise gets later.

[Pajarita]

I hear you, Navre! See if you can find a way so she would always poop when she comes out regardless of where she is... I don't know what your routine is or what is going to be as the days get shorter so I can't actually tell you 'do this' or 'do that' -aside from the fact that I have no idea how to get her to poop anywhere... I don't have that problem with my birds, they'll poop anywhere, the fiends!

[Wolf]

I don't like any potty training with parrots, but since you already have this happening it seem to me that in order to solve the particular issue that you have that you need to train her to potty in her cage just for the morning poo. Perhaps rolling her cage into the kitchen in the morning for a while would help to get her started , just be sure to reward her for pooping in her cage in the morning. If that works, then try moving the cage to another spot so that she is not tied to the kitchen for this. I worry, perhaps too much, that the bird will carry the intended training to the extreme and then your bird will only go in her cage. If this occurs then you just have to tweak it a little at a time.

[Navre]

Good idea wolf. I can't roll the cage into the kitchen as it's too big to get through the doors, but I'll try to figure something out to keep her from waiting for me to poop.

Maybe I'll try just asking her nicely.

[Pajarita]

Yes, you will have to experiment until you find the way to 'de-train' her. It's dangerous for them to hold it (same as it's dangerous for any animal -us included), it ends up enlarging the intestines so as to create a 'pocket' large enough for the extra matter which, in turn, ends up weakening the sphincters. Not good.