Teaching A Parrot To Poop At the Right Place

Do you love your Parrot but hate the mess he makes? How many ‘bird shirts’ do you really own? Would you love to have your Parrot out of his cage more often if it wasn’t for his poopy messes?

Potty Training your Parrot to Poop at the Right Place takes commitment, patience, consistency, and positive reinforcement. Younger birds are generally easier to train than older ones. Larger birds are generally easier to housetrain since they do not have to relieve themselves as often. A budgie may need to go three or four times an hour, whereas a macaw will only need to go every few hours.

Parrots have a much higher metabolism than mammals do. A Parrot’s normal body temperature is well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and food passes through the digestive track of a parrot in about 30 minutes or so. After eating, food is stored in the Parrot’s crop and is gradually passed into the rest of the digestive tract. For this reason, Parrots will poop periodically for 2-3 hours after eating their food.

Did you know that the average Parrot needs to go every 15 – 30 minutes depending on the size of the Parrot? Do you know which actions to look out for from your Parrot before he does poop? Knowing this will help you to time how long your Parrot can be out of his cage before having to go in again to potty.

Having your Parrot poop in one place will save you a lot of headaches, not to mention saving money on the various cleaning supplies that you will need to remove your Parrot’s poop from your carpets, drapes and other household furniture.

A good way is with positive reinforcement. Take him on your fingers and hold him over a place where it is okay to poop. Tell him "go poop!" and wait for him to do it. When he does, give him a treat and lots of praise. This works especially well first thing in the morning when he will have his big morning poop!

You will need to also teach your Parrot a command word. But make sure this is not a very common word! Pick a command word that you don’t hear during a normal everyday conversation, or you might find your Parrot pooping on you if he happens to be sitting on you and hears the word. Likewise, remember that accidents do sometimes happen – just try to be more attentive to your Parrots behavior!

The best way to start to train your Parrot to poop in one place is by getting up before your Parrot does. This is very important as all Parrots do their first and biggest poop of the day, within minutes of waking up. So you should wake your Parrot up first and then take him out of his cage to an area where it is acceptable for him to go potty.

Once your Parrot has gone poop, always reward him with a nice treat. Something that he certainly doesn’t always get everyday! And don’t forget to tell him what good a bird he is! Parrots love to get treats and to be praised!

If you have a flighted Parrot, you may be able to become really advanced and teach the command "go to your cage" or "go to your perch." Then, once your parrot arrives at the appropriate location of his own accord, you may give the command "go potty."

Also, your Parrot may be so clever that he will climb or fly back to his cage on his own accord to go potty, if you have trained him to know that he should only go potty in his cage! Wouldn’t that be awesome?