Potty Training Parrots

All in all, you should never potty train your parrot, or any bird. Birds are not designed to hold their poop except for breeding season, and even then things can get dicey. There are behaviors I will not train or help clients train, and among those are potty training parrots.

I’ve worked with thousands of birds in my life with varying backgrounds. I have found some unusual pooping practices due to being trained and encouraged to poop specific places or times. This includes not pooping unless on a specific perch in the cage or not pooping in the cage ever because it was trained to poop somewhere outside of the cage.

I’ve met birds that you couldn’t change their cage or perch set up because they would stop pooping for over 24 hours! Birds that will hold their droppings in and have so much trouble relieving such an amount that it leads to prolapsing. Birds developing infections because they constantly hold their poop is alsp common. Plus, the poop can develop an extreme odor to it, and sometimes you can “feel the heat” of the poop.

Pooping, getting pooped on, and furniture pooped on is a part of having parrots without a doubt. Instead of causing potentially harmful medical concerns for your bird by potty training them, it’s best to manage the pooping! Putting paper down on the floor where the birds cage and stand is help for easy cleanup. Having “bird shirts” you change into that the bird can chew and poop on to their hearts content. Creating a Shaw by taking a square piece of fabric to a desired size to cover your shoulder and back and simply cutting a head hole in the middle to drape over yourself (I came up with that one in elementary school and was so happy to find others found similar solutions). Covering furniture with covers, blankets, or towels while your bird is with you so when messes happen, you can simply remove!