Potty Training

[PrettyBirdie]

I have two young cockatiels that I have had for about two months now. They are very smart and lively! These are my very first birds so I am kinda lost with a bunch of things. I have been taking my birds out every day and doing little training sessions with them which are going fairly well except for the potty training. I would love to bring my cute little friends all over the house if I knew that they weren't going to poop everywhere. Any suggestions on how to start potty training??!

Thanks!

 

[Newbsi]

I havent even starting thinking of this yet. It would be SO NICE.... since I change shirts multiple times a day. The only one I can predict is the first morning one. I get her out of her cage, take her to the kitchen, put her on the hanging perch over the sink and while I make her breakfast, she has her HUGE MORNING DROP. Other than that. I only see it coming a second before she does it. I am a human bird diaper.
I will be interested to see what people say about this one!

 

[Captsteve]

The way I did mine is:

Everytime you take it out of the cage, hold it over the garbage can , touch the tail and say potty. Then every 5-7 min repeat. They catch on pretty quick but you will still have to watch for their tell tale sign of needing to go. most of mine give a little quiver.

After a while, they get the idea.

My Macs will just hold it until they get back in the cage.

 

[Anansi]

I've worked with mine to only go on perches. (I have yet to get them to differentiate between a perch and the perch-like back of a chair! Smh. But I digress.) Jolly came to me largely potty trained (go, Laura!), so I'll tell you what I did with Maya and my dearly departed Bixby.

While on their tree stands, I'd watch them closely. Whenever one would go, I'd say "poop" (you can substitute whatever phrase you'd like. I'd even considered going with "bombs away" or "drop it like it's hot", but then decided to keep it simple, instead. Hahaha!) and then tell him/her that they did a good job. After enough repetition, the association was made between the word and the action, as well as the appropriateness of where said action was taking place.

At the same time, I was also timing the intervals between one poop and the next. For Bixby, it was roughly 15 minutes between one and the next. For Maya, closer to 30. So now I knew my windows. And whenever I had them on me, I kept myself aware of those windows. For Bixby, by the 13 minute mark I'd put him on his perch and wait for him to go. Then I'd say "poop", praise his action, and pick him right back up. For Maya I'd do the same, except that I'd do so at the 28 minute mark rather than 13.

Once Bixby made the association, I was able to relax a bit. Because once he felt the urge to go he would... mostly... remember to fly off to his perch, do his thing, and then fly back to me. This earned him high praise.

Maya, on the other hand, never fledged. And as such, is not very inclined toward taking flight. (Though I haven't given up on that just yet.) So I try to remain vigilant with her time and aware of her body language. I know that April/Kiwibird has trained her Amazon, Kiwi, to simply raises his "hand" when he's ready to go, but Maya, diva that she is, has refused to follow his example. Ah, well.

And Jolly, like Bixby before him, just flies off to one of the tree stands. Or his cage. Or the back of a chair. (Grumble! But at least he turns so that it hits the floor, rather than the seat! Hahaha!) And he does so with rather impressive consistency. Maybe 95%? So it's definitely doable.

 

[Dinosrawr]

100% back up Stephen's suggestions. I did the same thing with Avery as he has his birds. Timed her intervals, put her on an "acceptable" pooping surface (towels, cage, play areas/stands, over a garbage can), and wouldn't move until she went poop while I repeatedly said, "go potty!". She's lovely, she'll hop right off, poop where she's allowed, and hop right back on.

Shiko... well, I never really reinforced it as much, but he knows he shouldn't poop on me. Why do I know this? Because he'll fly off me to my boyfriend, poop on him, and fly right back [emoji23]. He also knows the "bombs away" command, but fails to use it contextually. Sometimes I think he uses it as a threat, considering that he'll fly to me, look me in the eye, and quietly say, "Bombs away!"

I think he enjoys the reaction

 

[Kyoto]

Kyo will sometimes poop and THEN inform me of it "go poopie!" If I don't pay attention and get her onto her play stand in time. Heh

 

[AJBirds]

I try to keep an eye out on Pixie's body language; when she starts the backward shuffle, or when I think it's been a while, I take her to her newspaper-covered stand, or hold her over newspaper, and tell her to "poop". She's pretty good at it, and gets rewarded with a treat.

 

[Sassy12]

My Yellow Shouldered Amazon, has been the best parrot, for not messing on me. Maybe twice in 8 years of owning her. But I have been messed on by cockatoos, other Amazons, parakeets and conures. Really can't stop a bird from pooping. That is a natural thing. I used a towel over my shoulder, before getting Sassy. It is that Sassy will poop like any other bird, but she seems to go less. So much less, that I can take her out of her cage and she does not poop for 15 to 20 minutes. She is my Yellow Shouldered Amazon. Now I have noticed, smaller birds have a quicker metabulism than larger birds. The quicker the metabulism the more pooping the bird will do. A Budgie or Parakeet will poop a little dot. Easy to clean. A larger parrot will leave more urine in droppings which will cause one to change their shirt. Like I said, a bird will do what is natural. Some birds can poop less on you than others. But Sassy might have pooped on me twice in 8 years. That is due to metabulism more than her ability to hold it in. She is a bird and will poop if she has to. I would suggest getting your cockatiel out of her cage, after she poops, to make it less likely that she has to go when you get her out. But I tried this with a budgie and still got pooped on, because the average budgie poops more frequently.