Beak cues

[Kristina M]

Hi everyone interesting thread.... As is common my GCC "Goose" holds his poo overnight. In the morning he has a hardy poop. I go to work and when I come home his cage is always clean as he has held his poop all day. I take him out immediately and he has another hardy poop. For the rest of the evening he is out and about around the house and poops about every 10 minutes anywhere he happens to be when the urge hits (usually on me). I am concerned that he does not poo in his cage but don't think there is anything I can do about this? Any thoughts?

 

[issajoy]

My mom had two eclectuses.... Hunter (male, he's 13) and Rosie (female, she was 6 and passed away last year), they both learned potty training pretty naturally. They pooped in their cage or standing on the cage door, as well as on baskets. My mom would buy natural wood/unfinished baskets and line the bottom with newspaper, that was their portable perch if they wanted to be out but not on someone. They also learned to poop there, and if they were on someone they would walk or fly to a basket to poop. Never seemed to give either issues....

It sounds like the issues happen when the bird is forced to poop, not when he is taught of proper places to poop. Of course, Hunter and Rosie weren't punished if they had an accident on the floor or wherever, but they were definitely praised when they went to a basket or back to the cage to poo.

Ollie, my new macaw, won't poop on me which is nice. I praise him (verbal only) if he goes in the cage or over a newspaper but don't punish for pooping in a less desirable location.