Real Potty Training Tips?

[Duky]

I have heard of other birds going back to their "potty perch" on their on, is there any way to teach this? Ducky knows the command "potty time" and I know she has to go every 20 minutes, so if I take her back in time I don't get any mess...but if she's been eating to many treats or I'm a little late, she'll just let it fly where-ever. I would really like to encourage her to go back to her cage when she has to. She's a 2 year old GCC and she's flighted. She has no problem flying after me any where in the house, but how can I get her to fly back to her cage when she has to go??? Anyone out there who's birds can do this???

[Alyx]

I await the answer to this question with baited breath!!!

[chseeads]

My GC for the most part tries not to go to the bathroom on me. If I let it sit on me for longer than I should, sometimes it can't help it, but otherwise it will generally wait until I put it on a perch or off of me somewhere to go.

My sun on the other hand has not taken up that avenue of thinking yet, and doesn't seem to care when or where it goes...lol So I just have to be a bit more mindful and put it down to give it the opportunity to go.

Would be awesome if they would actually seek out the "bathroom" area when they needed to go on their own. lol

[Cirrus]

My boyfriend's conure makes a specific sound whenever he needs to go potty. He shifts his weight from foot to foot, making that noise until you take him to his perch.

That's about as good as I've seen it get.

Mine does a bum wiggle. And puts his bum on my ear if he's on my shoulder. Weird.

[sunnyhoney]

Honey flies to her cage to drop the bomb for the most part.... sometimes when she is in my bedroom though she dont make it and shell just let it drop on the floor where she is perched. She always perches on my foot board to my bed. Plus, I always know when she is gonna go cause she takes a bow.. hahaha

I give her a lot of praise when she goes in her cage so she realizes it was a good thing that she did.

[Reznik]

I have a 7 year old Nanday Conure who was not potty trained when I got him but never has an accident anymore. As far as cant wait or hold it goes, they hold it all night long so they can do the same during the day. I did not intentionally train the Nanday, it happened on its own. Every morning I wake them up at 5:30AM sharp, he is always excited to see me and does all his kissing noises and comes out to see me. He sits on top of his door (he has yet to have his morning poop), and I stand by with his favorite treat, and keep repeating "poop" - he goes because he cant help as he hasn't had the morning poop yet, once he goes I praise him and give him a treat. He has related the word to action and now goes on command, he can even last 1-2 hours on my shoulder with no accidents - ONLY because he knows I take him every hour or so back to his cage to go on command and as a result gets a treat. He knows if he doesn't wait he doesn't get a treat and has to go back to his cage and left alone for a little. Took maybe 3-4 weeks for him to catch on, now about a year later he never seems to have a problem. Hope I explained it right...

[Duky]

Originally Posted by sunnyhoney

Honey flies to her cage to drop the bomb for the most part.... sometimes when she is in my bedroom though she dont make it and shell just let it drop on the floor where she is perched. She always perches on my foot board to my bed. Plus, I always know when she is gonna go cause she takes a bow.. hahaha

I give her a lot of praise when she goes in her cage so she realizes it was a good thing that she did.

See, that's what I'm talking about AWESOME! Did she just all of a sudden start flying back on her own? I take Ducky back to her perch to go, I give her the command, and she either goes and gets a treat or shakes her head no if she doesn't have to. But it would be really good if she could just go and come back on her own.

[sunnyhoney]

Yea, she flew back on her own... I never really taught her to do it.... Or sometimes when I need to do something shell go when I put her back. For the most part she flies back on her own....

I think it so so cute though that Ducky will shake her head no if she dont have to go.... I can just picture that now!

[usamma]

My bird would rather poop outside of his cage when he can. When the door is open he will go to the top of the cage on the outside, or sit on the open door and poop and then go back in. I wonder if you need to set up a birdie potty place rather than expecting your bird to poop in the cage.

I just try to read Moki's body language and I can sometimes tell when he has to poop because he gets kinda restless or thoughtful and stretches once. If I pay attention I will ask "go poo poo?" and take him to his poopy basket. I guess he has me trained rather than the other way around. I know they can hold it though. I mean, Moki doesn't seem to poop all night and lets out a huge one in the morning!

I will take him to the basket and just basically say "go poo poo" and I don't pick him up until he does. Now when he sees me coming to his cage he will poop in hopes that I pick him up and look at me expectantly. If he poops on me he has to get off immediately and go sit on his basket while I change. As a result he rarely poops on me, but he poops on my husband all the time! ha ha! My husband doesn't expect as much from Moki as I do, and Moki knows it.

Video of Moki on the poopy basket

Edited to add a personal opinion-- I know some people train their birds to poop on a paper towel on the floor, but it doesn't seem like it would be very clean. Also birds (at least mine) does not like to be on the floor if he can help it. Sometimes he poops on the back of the couch (we keep a sheet there) and will walk back through it when he's pacing and it gets all over the underside of his tail. It just seems a lot cleaner and more bird-friendly to have a place to perch to go poop.