Potty Training

[MacEnthusiast]

Has anyone in this group successfully potty trained their bird? How would you go about training them? Do you recommend it? I've heard training them to hold it in can put a strain on their organs.

As a kid I would put a diaper harness on my Quaker parrot but I don't think I would be quite as successful with the larger parrots I have now. It would be great if I could train them to either relieve themselves in certain areas or on command. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[Luvss2ride]

We had a U2 that was potty trained. He would only go while on a perch in his cage or on a play stand. He would go there on his own and then come back or we could place him and say poo.
Unfortunately I have no training information since he came to us that way. I just thought you would like to know that it is possible

 

[Hankmacaw]

It is possible, but you need to be careful not to train them too stringently. If they get to the point that they don't feel that they can poop unless you tell them to, or be where they are trained to poop they will hold it too long and that can cause physical issues.

 

[JLcribber]

If you study the anatomy of a bird, you realize that they are meant to go when they have to. They have to remain lightweight at all times as they are a prey animal and be ready for flight at any given moment. They do not possess lengthy colons to store excrements. It can cause severe medical problems and illnesses, for example prolapse, as a result of being potty trained, holding it, and holding it too long repeatedly over a period of time. Exception: Nesting hens will hold it all day.


It's not safe for a bird to poop on command - they will try to force one out even if they don't need to. This practice is VERY DANGEROUS as this will cause cloacal prolapse - a horrible thing!! You can encourage them to let you know when they need to go poop and make sure they are in an appropriate place to "let one fly." Do not cause them to strain to poop when they don't need to!


My opinion? Birds poop. Have your rag and bird-safe cleaners handy.

 

[Johno]

My timnah African grey Pickle is partly trained in this, if I'm asleep she will normally sit somewhere on me, but will only go to the toilet when I wake up and put her somewhere like her cage etc, she will do it anywhere if desperate which is the way I want it for the reasons above.

Also if she is sitting with me and needs to go she will grab a finger or skin and apply some pressure with her beak and will lean to her cage for example, this is her way to tell you she needs to go.

So yeah it can be done, I personally didn't train her to do this, she was a rescue and has done it from day one with me. But like above it's nice to have but just don't force it because when you gotta go, you need to go. So train it with this in mind

Hope this helps

 

[dwright27]

My dad's U2 will go to her cage to poop and then go back to wherever she was (usually wherever my dad is). I don't know how they trained her though. I imagine it took quite a while, but she's 25 now and most of the training is done lol.