Pottie Training your bird

When I say poop, they say how high. LOL I have trained 2 of my three guys to poop. I have taught them to poop when I say POOP. This is only when they are off their cages, and when I'm out with them. Before you can train them you have to know their ruteen,well. Soon as I take them off the cage I put them in an area and tell them to poop. When I out in the car with them, they are put on the floor and told to poop. Long drives, I stop and let them go again. Once in a while they slip up, and they know it, because I tell them how nmad I'm at them, and no more on the shoulder, right to the back seat, ALONE, for 10 min.
Good luck. MAKE IT FUN FOR THEM!
Joe

Jay wrote:Now I am not sure but I thought I read somewhere that some birds have made themselves sick from holding it in because they were not told to poop
any truth to this?? I think potty training would be a great idea just wondering if anyone else has heard of this.

I have heard this and seen it happen. I also know of birds that will not poop in their cage because in the wild they do not normally poop where they roost. In my expeirience... Birds are smart. They know by your reactions. I have not "formally" potty trained my birds. In the beginning, if they poop on me, I might put them on a stand until they poop again and then pick them up again. Very quickly they know. If I'm playing with them, they will fly away to poop and come back.

Interesting! This is exaxtly i was thinking about Joe Because my baby Quaker since he is only 7 weeks old he poops every 10-15mins. Every time i want to handle him i have to get an old towel or something to cover my self. I also have learn that my baby makes a funny noice every time right before he poops. so thats a good sign? What way would you recomend me to potty train my bird so he wont poop on me or other people whilee we go out to the streets and stuff like that? Thanks Hope to hear from you really soon...

-Jay, No i have never herd about birds gettin sick for holding it in i dont think they can hold it in more than a few hours they defenitly will poop. when you gotta go you gotta go... lol...

Now I am not sure but I thought I read somewhere that some birds have made themselves sick from holding it in because they were not told to poop
any truth to this?? I think potty training would be a great idea just wondering if anyone else has heard of this.

My eclectus is potty trained so much so that when he sees his "poop perch" He says go poop, go poop, pooooopppp. He will say it to the other birds when they are on the stand. I was surprised how quickly all of them learned to poop where specified. I mean occasionally if I don't put them on the stand, they will have an accident. But mainly they go as soon as they are put on the stand. The ekkie will even tell me sometimes and say "go poop" if he has to go! Birds are soo smart it's amazing!

Pottie Training the bird

If you were to go back throughout the history of parrot ownership you would
undoubtedly find thousands of different parrot owners who have mastered
the skill of potty training their parrot, it just simply isn’t that hard. It just
takes a little work. And potty training isn’t particular to any species, which is nice for you. These methods will work on Cockatiels, Macaws,
Cockatoos, Conures, Quaker parrots and just about everything in between.
Parrots are extremely smart and many studies have shown that they have the intelligence of a two year old; and other birds, whether you believe it or not, have actually mastered speech that is in context. That means they can actually understand what the words you say mean, and reply in a logical manner with words and complete thoughts. An animal with those kinds of abilities can certainly be trained to “hold it” a bit longer.
Before we get into exactly how to potty train your parrot, you will need to
understands some basics. Some of these basics you will probably already
know, but others you may not. For example you need to know that a bird
starts to digests its food fairly quickly. Usually within 20-30 minutes, many times even less. And on top of the quick digestion, the parrot will store food in his craw that is released into his stomach over a period of a few hours. This means that your bird will poop every 20-30 minutes for 2-3 hours after a meal. I usually like to potty train a younger bird between 3-5 months. This is the age where they seem to gain enough control of their bowels and can be capable of learning to hold it in. After learning a few of those basics I just went through, you are going to want to start to take real careful notice of your parrot, and his frequency to poop. You might find it a good idea to use a small journal and record when your bird seems to go poop. How often does he wait in between eliminations? Does he poop right before he flies? What about right after he lands from a flight? Or does he poop in the morning, like most birds do?
You will also want to know how you want to train your parrot. Do you want him to poop with a verbal command? Or just every time you put him over a waste paper basket, or garbage can? My brother, who you see in some of our videos, is a full time magician, and uses our Umbrella Cockatoo in his show. And one of the tricks that my brother does in the show, is get Linus, our to poop on command. Dave trained Linus to do was poop every time Dave said “Linus….Sit!” Of course this gets a good reaction from the crowd, because it sounds so much like another four letter word I won’t repeat. But I tell you this for two reasons. One is that your bird will be very keen at repeating whatever command you decide to use when potty training, so make sure you pick a word that you can handle for the rest of your parrots life, which may be 80 years for some of you. And the other reason I bring this up, is because when you train your bird to use a verbal command to go to the bathroom, then it doesn’t matter where you are. You could be on stage like my brother, you could be at a friends house, or anywhere and your bird will be potty trained. This is often a better way to train then using a garbage can or other prop like
a litter basket that might not always be available.
Here is the step by step process:
Figure out how often your parrot goes poop. Once you know when he is
going to go, and you know it like clockwork, then you can anticipate when he will make his next dropping and catch him in the act. It is then, when you catch him in the act, that you can reward him and start to shape his behavior.
Watch for warning signs:
Some parrots will squat down before pooping. Others will ruffle their tail
feathers in a certain way, and still others have their completely unique tell
tale signs that give them away every time. Learn what your parrot’s body
language for having to go poop is and use this to help you anticipate.
For example Linus our Cockatoo always walks over to the edge of the bed, table or whatever he is standing on, if it is a flat surface, to poop. He does this so he doesn’t have to step in it. And my little cockatiel could care less if he steps in it, but man does he give himself away when he has to go, because he crouches, takes a few steps backwards and then wiggles his tail feathers.

How do you want to train your parrot?
You must figure out if you want your parrot on a verbal command or if
simply holding him over a garbage can should be the cue. You should spend time thinking about this, because once you decide there is no going back. Take into consideration the different environments the bird will be in, and the availability of any props used in teaching your parrot to be potty trained.
The Actual Potty Training
Once you have figured out everything we have already talked about, the rest is easy. Simply be patient and aware of when your bird is going to do its thing. And right when you see your parrot start to poop say the phrase that you have decided is going to be the cue to get the parrot to go poop. After the parrot is finished, give tons of praise, and even pet him in his favorite spot. However, do not reward him with any sort of clicker or treat, as rewarding him with treats will actually cause him to poop more often to earn a treat from you. The whole point of saying the word as the parrot is pooping is so that he starts to connect the phrase you are telling him with the act of pooping. Don’t worry it will take a few days, but your parrot will start to connect the phrases, he is smart enough.
Repeat this phrasing as often as you can. Try to adjust your schedule so that when your parrot is ready to poop again, you can be right there to say the phrase again when he starts to poop, and reward with tons of positive praise and attention for obeying your command. When you are performing all of this, you want to keep all variables the same. In other words you don’t want to be adjusting the location of the
perch your parrot is on while potty training, it might confuse him. Instead
pick out the litter box, and have the bird aim for that until he fully masters it. Some birds catch on in a day or two, and some may take up to 3 weeks, but don’t give up, they truly can make the connection.
You will want to test your parrot after you think he might be making some progress. If he is supposed to poop every 20 minutes, then go back at 18 minutes and repeat the phrase you have assigned and see if he poops early for you. If he does you have mastered the behavior. Congratulations!

Closing Tips And Thoughts
If you want your bird to only poop in, on or over one specific item, then
never vary from that item. The bird can be trained to be so used to pooping while only on a certain perch or above a certain object, that it will not poop unless over it, and will do its best to actually waddle, fly or climb over to his designated spot before going to the bathroom. So before you dive into potty training really spend some time thinking about
exactly what you want your parrot to do, and where you want him to do it. I have enjoyed our time together with this fun and interesting subject, and
hope to be back with you soon. My last little tip is this, if you see your parrot pooping and you were too late to repeat your phrase to him before he did “his thing” DO NOT REWARD!
He only should be awarded when he does the behavior correctly.