potty training

[Guest foobar]

weve had a grey for about 3 1/2 years now. he was hand reared and knows no fear. Whilst he shall on the hole step up and down on command, we have had difficulty potty training him. Whenever he goes now he says good boy but not always in the right place! can anyone recommend a good mehtod of abruptly doing this?

[BirdLadySecrets]

Well, there isn't an "Abrupt" way to potty train a parrot, whether African Grey or other species. It takes a whole lot of patience and even then, it isn't always perfect at best.

 

The way to perform the training is, identify the times that a parrot "goes" which are:

a) immediately after waking up in the morning or after a nap

b) about 5-10 minutes after eating

c) whenever they assume that stance that you probably recognize by now as meaning "I'm about to go potty".

 

Here's the trick that I've shared with the members of the Elite Parrots Club: prepare to give the command and place the parrot in the location you want to teach him or her to go potty just BEFORE you expect the need to occur. Then, when it happens correctly, give tons of praise and a treat. Later, as you get the training down better, the praise will be enough and you can easily reach a point over time where you can get him to understand that he has to go potty before you'll pick him up. There's a cute video at EPC of a member's bird arguing about going potty before she will pick him up!

 

Not to make this terribly long, after all it is my very first post here, but I'd like to share how my sun conure, SunDance potty trained herself and trained me. When she would go on my shirt, I'd take her back to her "house" (cage) and place her on her porch while I went to either clean the spot or change the shirt. Well, sometimes I'd get busy for forget to go back and get her and she didn't like this much. So, soon she began saying "go home". This meant she wanted to be returned to her house. If she were taken there, placed on her porch, which was her fav potty spot, she'd go immediate and want to be picked right back up. If her humans didn't respond at the first "go home", she's repeat the phrase and nibble on our necks to be sure we were paying attention. After she told us the third time, if we didn't respond as she had trained us, well, it was OUR fault we got dirty!

 

Good luck with your potty training!

[Talon]

That is very good advice and sounds easy to do. Talon has a potty basket that she uses. She also will whistle when she needs to go. ( most of the time) But if your not paying attention, it's your own fault.

 

Thanks for identifying the "times" when they tend to go.

[judygram]

Josey has a potty trash can she uses, but most of the dumps on me are from the sun conure.

[CeasarsDad]

Hi BirdLady.

 

So glad to see you in our forum here. Excellent on the potty training subject.. Thanks again and welcome..

[judygram]

Must have a few spare moments there huh, Frank.{Feel-good-00020069}

[Talon]

Ya, what's up with that? YOur supposed to be so busy keeping us up on all that we're missing. What are you doing wasting time here. Get back to those nice pictures! We want to see Hawaii!!! :woohoo: :woohoo:

[judygram]

He claims he can't sleep so he might as well get on the site. But I want to see the pictures too.

[Talon]

I think he's trying to keep the suspense going....what do you think? He knows we can hardly wait!! :cheer:

I guess the time zone took it's toll tonight.

 

{Feel-bad-00020066}

[judygram]

Lack of sleep will eventually catch up with you and by the time he adjusts to the time zone it will be time to come home.{Communicate-000200D7}

[Caspersmum]

Getting back to the poo thing, I've tried this technique with Casper - and it's worked really well. He now goes on his play perch which has a wipe-clean mat underneath - and as Talon said, any mistakes now tend to be my fault. The only problem is that he doesn't like pooing in his cage now, which means I have to get him out regularly for a poo - I'd love to know if BirdLady has any suggestions on how to prevent/ reverse this problem.

 

Here's hoping

 

Julia

 

PS - hope you're having fun in Hawaii, CD!

[judygram]

Sorry we kinda got off the topic, but it is not every day that one of the forum members goes to Hawaii.

I have heard that some greys don't want to go in their cage, mine is not one of them, they don't want to mess up home. He should be able to hold it for a while until you can let him out as long as it is not all day.

[Talon]

Talon will not go in her cage either, she will hold it in until I take her out. Judy is right, they don't want to mess up their home.

[raehamilton]

How early do you start teaching them to go potty in a specific spot?

[judygram]

You can start anytime as far as I know, probably the earlier the better.

[Tricky]

Definitely helpful... I've been meaning to look up potty training methods. :laugh:

[cdelatorrejr]

Thanks, I'll try this potty training technique on my grey while he's still young. I noticed certain behaviors before relieving himself/herself.

[M2MM]

We've made a habit of holding our bird over newspaper, old phone books, paper toweling, waste baskets, etc. while coaching him with "go poopy" and waiting until he performs his function, followed by lots of praise, pets & kisses. He will still "go" whenever he needs to, but will fuss and whine prior to pooping, giving us plenty of warning, so if he has an accident we do not blame him.

 

So far, so good.

[NLJohnso]

I have been having some success with Zazu in regards to potty training!

 

I have only had him for a few months now, but have been trying to be very consistant with my practice. I make sure to use word association first. Whenever he goes, I make sure to say "potty" or talk to him about how he went "potty" everytime I see him go.

 

Next I have been trying to bing him over our trash can (which has a automatic lid on it and can flip open) and say "go potty" or "can u go potty" when I bring him over it while perched on my hand. He has been getting the idea that I want him to go potty here (as I do this right after I bring him out of the cage, in case he has to go right away, and often during the day). Sometimes he goes (which I praise him for!), sometimes he goes JUST before I open the trash (must get excited to go?) and sometimes he either doesn't have to go, or doesn't want to go..

 

Either way it's a process and once you get to know your bird more its a growing and learning experience for both you and your AG. Hope my experience and work with Zazu is a bit encouraging for you!

[NLJohnso]

Can I..just gloat again by saying... Zazu went potty in the trash again. ugh Im such a proud Mom. Time to go spend some much needed preening on each other. B)

[TinyTimneh]

well, foobar, I don't think you'll ever be able to train your grey to be 'housebroken' in a sense, like a dog would, if he needs to go, he'll still go.

it will take a while, (actual length varies with particular birds, some birds just 'get it' quicker than others, for example, my Timneh Jacko, is potty trained very well, the 'tiel however, just looks at me like a deer in the headlights lol)

also, is it me or maybe training the bird to go in a specific place would start the problem of the bird who won't poop in his cage because he figures it isn't the 'approved' place you've shown him?

Jacko is trained to poop on the commsnd 'go poop', i think this is a much safer way to do it rather than training the bird to a specific place. to him, the command is much like the 'up' command, obviously he'll still step up in his cage while climbing around, not just sit there till i tell him to. the only downside to this is that you will have to be more vigilant, because he'll still go even if you don't say the command. but personally i just pick him up every 10/15 minutes and say go poop, and he does, no hassle, no running for the right spot, just make sure there's a sheet of newspaper on the fllor beside the couch.

just wait for the 'i gotta poop' walk and then pick up your grey, say go poop or whatever you use, and once he does, praise. and then repeat. he'll get it eventually. good luck

[zooman]

I have to say it is a process for suuuure. My alexandrine was much easier just say the words and he goes and before i get him out of his cage. Now Zuri my TAG wellll im on his time apparently, he's slowly getting it but both of them do poop if startled or if they are on me and i bend down etc. Thats the one detail i havent been able to control.

[Christian]

My uncle had a sun conure and he goes potty when my uncle holds the bird out of the window(reason is because he if he was 2 months that would be a lot)

 

but now i know how to potty train my grey. thanks!

[GMAN]

potty training is a waste of time. I just let mine go where they want - no worries :woohoo:

[bonek]

that good potty training guys!!! i will teach bonek for that.:lol: