Poop...Just Live with it?

Hey guys.

So this is a pretty dumb question in my opinion, but I'm wondering if there is any kind of potty training you can do with a parrot?

As of yesterday I'm the proud owner of a 1.2 yr old Red Throated Conure, and I am wondering when were hanging out in my bed or something, do I just live with his droppings, or is there any way to train them with clickers or treats or anything to learn to just go in their cage?

I've read it can be unhealthy because they can learn but then might hold it too long or something, so I'm just getting some opinions and suggestions on how you guys deal with the constant droppings in places like your bed. Thanks!

I don't potty train my birds, but they understand if you don't like when they poop on something. I'm acting like the bird is distasting and say, urk. Then I move the bird to a "poop-place". This works only on a few objects. If they poop anywhere else i say, good boy or just ignore them, but I think it's important to reward them too, so they don't think that that's the pooping that is wrong.
They are so smart so I say that this is working very good if you give it a try.

Every 15 minutes I just take my bird from my shoulder and put her on her cage. When she poops I immediately pick her up and pet her. After a while she got the hang of it an now only poops on me if there is no other choice.

Haha, I have her trained so well that once when we were all watching TV she hopped off my shoulder, walked across the couch, hopped onto the next couch, crawled up onto my husband, pooped on him, and then walked back to me!

I was meaning to ask this question. I am really scared of them holding it in. But, they seem to only like to poop on the non newspaper covered parts, so maybe I'll look more into it.

Karigan said:

Every 15 minutes I just take my bird from my shoulder and put her on her cage. When she poops I immediately pick her up and pet her. After a while she got the hang of it an now only poops on me if there is no other choice.

Haha, I have her trained so well that once when we were all watching TV she hopped off my shoulder, walked across the couch, hopped onto the next couch, crawled up onto my husband, pooped on him, and then walked back to me!

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Haha that is pretty funny. I will definitely start trying that as well as praising when I see them do it somewhere it's okay too and disregarding it when they don't. Thanks!

It's a little dangerous to potty train them, you never want to reward with treats as it can lead to them holding it in and getting infections.

Whenever Rosie goes poop I say "You went poop!" And now if I say "You have to go poop?" she'll go poo if she has to, and if she doesn't have to she just doesn't. If I'm sitting on the couch I have a towel with me, and I bring a towel in the car.

Thats how I train mine copperarabian... I dont teach them not to poop, I teach them to poop on command IF they need to poop. So I will frequently stop by the cage and ask if they need to poop. That works pretty well And theres no holding it in.

Mango is starting to learn that I like it when he poops on news paper or on a specific towel. I ignore it when he poops anywhere else, but I make a big deal of it when he poops on the paper. Mostly I just pet him and talk to him with my excited voice. We keep newspaper all over the house, and we have the towel for cuddle time. If the news paper is really close he will move over to it, but he often misses and I dont think he has much control. He looks around a little and then just poops, I would say he has about 5 seconds to move and then he just goes. I dont really care about poop on the floors since we dont have much carpet, its just the couch we try to avoid. I usually just keep an eye on him and try to keep him on the towel when we are on the couch and keep news paper under his playstand etc. Dave sometimes puts a towel over his shoulder when Mango is sitting up there if he is wearing clothes that he would prefer not to get pooped on. I have bird friendly shirts with pockets and buttons that are fine to be pooped on and are easy for him to cling to/play on.

Let me say i have never "trained" a bird to poop on command. Yes you have to be very aware or your fid and learn to read them. If given a choice they'd rather not poop in places they hang out (Draws predators).A good example is hen amazons will get up off their eggs and "go " out side of the nestbox. They can "hold" it i'm sure, coz they don't want to get off those eggs for anything. If you notice i'll bet your fid poops in one spot in his cage. My long time pet will not poop on me if i give her the chance to "go" some where else. If i don't pay attention, i'm liable to have parrot poop on me. She also gives little signs that she needs to "go", you just have to be aware enough to see them. She does a little "dance", LOL My sister had a Macaw that would poop in the trash can, She would carry him over to the can and "lift" his tail, sure enough he'd go poop.

I haven't trained Audrey not to poop on me, but I think it would be handy! She usually doesn't like to poop on me anyway, and will go to her cage or my partner hahahahahaha. I always know she needs to go to the toilet when she wants to be on my partner, she climbs to him, poops, then comes back to me xD

Colada flies to a perch I have in the room to go poop. She did this by herself. Piña doesnt care LOL

You guys don't know poop....

Inverse said:

You guys don't know poop....

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I don't think I've seen anything that poops as much as a lorikeet. Our zoo has an aviary that you can feed the lorikeets and they poop so often

kc_y0 said:

I always know she needs to go to the toilet when she wants to be on my partner, she climbs to him, poops, then comes back to me xD

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You have trained your bird well! ^^

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread... gave me a chuckle and brought back some good memories..
My dad had his Grey well trained - each morning he would open the cage, hold out a branch for the bird to climb on and then hold branch and bird over the toilet... Grey would shake his tail a bit and then do his business and make the sound of a toilet flushing to indicate he was done. Had us in stitches! May they both RIP.

KimH said:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread... gave me a chuckle and brought back some good memories..
My dad had his Grey well trained - each morning he would open the cage, hold out a branch for the bird to climb on and then hold branch and bird over the toilet... Grey would shake his tail a bit and then do his business and make the sound of a toilet flushing to indicate he was done. Had us in stitches! May they both RIP.

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That's too funny! I'm slowly learning my new Conure's body language, and have pretty much got it down to when he's gonna go and can get something under him. I may try training him on going to a special spot later on, but he's still pretty new and that's the least of my worries at the moment lol.