Pooping - how do you handle it?

Hey there!

New to owning a conure and am curious as to how people handle your birds droppings when they are out of their cage and hanging out with you for hours and hours. Do you just let them go where they please and clean up what you find at the end of the day? Do you put them in their cage every 30 or so minutes?

Do tell!

Potty training works really well with parrots of all species.

Lots of links on "how to" in the training section of the forum.

Good luck! Conures are super smart, if you stick with it and be consistent he should learn fast.

Try watching what body language he shows before pooping. My gcc stretches his wings seconds before pottying so I can get him back to the cage in time. It took a few days, but he's learning where to go.

My old blue crown Tootsie was potty trained in the way that I could hold her in a good spot and tell her to "go poop". But as she ages, she does not have as good control any more. The 'plumbing is faulty' and there are occasional accidents. I just grin and bear it as part of caring for an elderly bird. I am happy that she is getting around 30 and still going.

The other blue crown Rosco will intentionally go on me cause he knows it irritates me. I have to jokingly say, "I'm certain of it!" He will fly to my laptop lid and within a second he starts to squat. Gets a poke in the beak every time and he flies off to finish his business on his cage or the playstand. I think it has become somewhat of a game for him.

My senegal Sidney has the flashiest response to needing to go. He can be contentedly sitting on me somewhere then suddenly he will squeal and blast off full throttle, circle back to his cage to land then do his business. I suppose that my training with him had unexpected drastic results. I'm not sure which is worse, getting pooped on or getting smacked in the face with a wing as he takes off. Those little wings can sting.

I think most birds will give some kind of subtle sign that they are ready to go. If you learn to recognize that and are quick (but not frightening) you can get them and put them in a spot and give the command. Rewards and lavish praise after. They are smart and they will learn.

Except maybe Rosco....

I usually lightly launch my female quaker parrot "Clover" towards her cage every 10 - 15 minutes. There, she does her business and flies back to me. But Clover is the type of plane that doesn't fly when overloaded. She lightly nips my ear when she feels that her cargo is too big to take off with. If I don't respond within a minute or so, the nip becomes a bite (yes, she trained me well), so I make sure to take her to her play stand or the trash can where she does her business without prompting.

Ann333 said:

Try watching what body language he shows before pooping. My gcc stretches his wings seconds before pottying so I can get him back to the cage in time. It took a few days, but he's learning where to go.

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I wish Kiwiberry would learn, I know the body language and sounds she makes before she has to go, the only problem is if she's on my shoulder she just won't step up on my finger so I can get her to the playstand where I put down newspapers for her to do her business on. Sometimes you just aren't able to see or hear her before bombing 'till you feel it on you ... It's not nice, she can be very rude lol

Just as I posted this, she flew to the playstand to poop, a massive dropping. I hadn't put down any paper yet, I think that's why she did it!

Tach squats once which is my queue to fling him back to his cage or play stand, where he poops, then flies back to me to carry on whatever we were doing. If its getting over 10-15mins and he hasnt pooped, ill fling him back to his cage and he goes "Oh, right, poop time"!