We have a sun concure parrot who is about 3 months old. How do you train it to use its cage for bathroom use?

Question

We bought this parrot when it was one month old so we have had it for about two month now. My husband and I have hand-fed this bird and now he is eating on his own in his cage. He has lots of attention and various times of the day out of his cage. It seems that he waits to come out of the cage to poop because his cage is pretty clean. We love to give him attention but are tired of the constant pooping on furniture or us. There has to be a way to have him use his cage. When we have him out of his cage, we leave the cage door open so he has access whenever he wants to go into his cage, do his thing, and come back out. We also have sticks near the cage so he can land and walk into the cage making it easier for him to get in the cage. He can do it because we have put him on the sticks and watched him walk in and come back out again. Please help.

Answer 1

I have found that some birds do not like to poop in their own cage becuase it is close to their food, but this is a young bird and not a high stress breed. The likely reason is, like mentioned above, that they poop every 15 minutes and also that he is so excited to see you or anxious about something and so he poops (like a dog peeing when someone is at the door).

I have though heard of house trained birds. My own umbrella cockatoos are potty trained. They will poop on command and will not go on you or your carpet. I cannot even get them to poop in the house when I use the command phrase because they know better. Your bird is young and it may take quite a while before it learns and stops making mistakes (but what do you expect from an animal who will have the mindframe of a four year old it's whole life?).

Anyway here are the steps to teach potty training:

1. Make friends with the bird. Birds don't like to poop on their friends. Trust me, my grey hates me and he will aim it at me...lol.

2. Watch your birds pooping habits. How long after he eats does he poop? How many minutes between the next poop and so on...Watch him closely and keep it in mind for the next step.

3. Right after your bird eats pick him up and sit with him somehwere comfortable, like the couch. If he allows you to pet him then do so, keeping your hand near his rear and kind of holding his feathers down to help him resist the urge to go. Hold him for however long it took between eating and pooping when you watched him before (probably 15 minutes or so) (or when he starts to figit which he may do if he needs to poop and you are holding his butt down), then quickly and still holding down his butt if he will let you take him back to his cage and put him on his perch.

4. Wait for him to lift his tail like he is going to poop and say a word (we use 'drop') and say it clearly while he is pooping. Offer him immediate praise and a treat if you have one. Pick him up again and play with him some more, following the same steps as above.

5. You do not have to do this each time he eats and each time he poops for him to catch on, but as he is so young I do not know how long it will take for him to catch on. Continue this regimin for as long as it takes. He will eventually learn that the word means to poop and that he should only do that in his cage. You can then teach him that it is also okay to poop on a perch if you have one by doing the same thing. He may not go at first, but he will learn.

My birds will only poop in their cages, on their perches, or outside. They will almost always try even if they don't have to when I use the command. This is great for car rides and when I let strangers hold them. Still you may get pooped on by your bird. If this happens after they are potty trained it is your own fault. Birds need to poop usually every 15 minutes or so. If you forget...well they can only hold it for so long. BTW my umbrella will hold it for a half hour or more if he really likes the person holding him. He is such a sweet heart.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Potty training is Ssooooo easy! People are amazed at how our bird is so well mannered! :) Usually in the long run.. you have to actually put the bird on a perch and say 'go potty'. However, I actually had half a dozen birds when I was a child that we trained so well.. that they actually went (on their own) in their cages to go potty and then came out to play!

1) wait for bird to go potty in cage. When bird does go potty., say "potty" and take him/her out and set on top of cage or favorite play area as a reward.

For a cockatiel.. ten minutes later, put it back in the cage., shut the door. Wait for it to poop again.. when it does, say "potty" and then let it out.

Do this long enough., pretty soon you can set it on a perch and say "go potty" and it will do it on command.

Yes, they'll make mistakes now and then., but they'll be a heck of a lot better than if you didn't teach them this.

Don't scold the pet for pottyin' in an area it's not supposed to.

This training is almost identical to training a puppy in a crate. Except the bird goes IN the crate, not outside ;)

It works! - and it's easy!

Answer 3

A conure will poo about every 15 minutes, wherever it is. As will most birds. Birds are not like dogs and I have never known one to be 'house trained'. I hate to say it, but if you're really that worried about poo in your house and on you, you possibly got the wrong kind of pet. Pooing is what birds do best.

Putting it back in its cage whenever it poops will not help, because it won't be able to associate the poop with being put back in the cage.

Answer 4

there's alot of ways to do this, but these are the ones I've tried. I have 2 conures, one is a sun conure, the other is a green cheek conure, and a grey cockatiel who all had this problem. it usually happens right after they fly somewhere and land.

You could associate something bad with pooping, like covering him with a towel or putting him in his cage. but NEVER put him somewhere he's afraid of (you can see when birds are afraid, they usually try to fly away or they lean away from the thing they're scared of if u r holding them.) The thing is that you have to do it right after he goes, or else he'll think he's getting punished for something else.

this is a little harder, but it can help him learn how to talk later on. when you see him move his tail right before he 'drops the load', say a word like "potty" or "poop". it can be any word, but you shouldn't make it more than two syllables, because that will be hard to remember. right after he goes, pet him and give him his favorite seed/pellet. keep doing this until he learns to say the word before he poops. that way you can put him in his cage or somewhere else you want him to poop in. over time, he might associate that with pooping and make the place you put him in his 'litterbox.'

Just remember, birds poop almost every fifteen minutes, so you might have a few accidents with him. If these don't work you can always look it up on a search engine.

Answer 5

next time he does it leave him in his cage for a few days , then take him out after he's done making his mess. If he messes while he's out of his cage put him back in it(cage) after a while of doing this he should get the hint. Have fun!!!

Answer 6

I agree with what Krys has mentioned on the training method... Just to add one more thing. Please do not punish the bird if it decides to do it's business on you again. The bird won't associate the punishments with pooping on you. it'll just think that since you're making such a fuss about it, you must like it!!

Cheers

Answer 7

you cant a bird will poop any where it feels like, i know this as i work in my dads pet shop and have kept birds for many years, my dad also hand rears birds