How To Potty Train Your Parrot

Parrots can be potty trained if you are willing to perform some dedicated and consistent training. Seldom are parrot perfect about their potty training but with some work, you can get near-perfect results. In fact, you can usually obtain results so good that when the parrot does have an accident, it is because you failed to pay attention!

Parrot characteristics vary according to their various conditions. Wild parrots do not potty where they sleep or eat. They move to another spot. In case of caged parrots, an adult bird will usually move to a spot far from its food and sleeping perch to defecate. Birds can be trained to "go" in different places, but often the cage is the preferred location.

SunDance Trained Me

I must say that I did not invent this training technique. SunDance taught me how to train parrots this behavior. Whenever she would potty on a shirt, she would be taken back to her cage and told to "go home" while I changed shirts or cleaned up the mess. Often, I might get busy and not go back to get her immediately, so she was not happy with this situation. Soon, she began to say "go home" before she defecated, giving me time to take her to her cage, let her poop and take her back with me. She liked this much better! If I did not respond quickly, she would nip gently on my neck and repeat her command to me to take her home. After she told me the third time, she would simply let go. It was up to me and her other humans to respond to the command she gave us.

Potty Times

Parrots go potty at specific times that can be used to train them. First thing in the morning, they will potty. About 10 minutes after eating, they will potty. This is reliable and you can use these times to know when to give the command and expect results.

Other parrot characteristics include getting into a certain posture before pottying. They sort of squat down and spread their rump feathers so they do not get them dirty. You will learn to watch for this body language and use it as well during training.

Train Parrot

Choose a word for the action of defecation. "Go poop", "go poo", "potty please" or something similar works just fine. Use this word whenever you see your parrot potty.

First thing in the morning, after saying "good morning", tell your parrot to go potty. Wait; it will happen very soon. Once it does, lavish praise on your parrot. Make a really big deal about what a great bird he or she is.

Watch for your parrot to finish eating breakfast and repeat the potty process. Also, watch for the potty body language and use the potty command and praise again.

In Closing

Some parrots learn this behavior quickly; others take some time to get the hang of it. But most parrots will get the idea in time and become reasonably consistent in avoiding messing up your clothes, sofa or carpet.

The key to training this behavior is consistency. After your parrot begins to let you know it needs to go potty, do not fail to respond. Stop what you are doing and take your bird to potty and praise it. If you sometimes ignore the need, you will not be nearly as successful as if you take the bird to potty promptly.