Toilet Train Your Parrot

A most useful element of training is to toilet train your parrot.   How many times have you had your parrot walk up your arm, on to your shoulder and a few moments later decide to soil your best shirt or blouse?    It's no fun having to clean up after your parrot wherever he/she has been when out of the cage.  

Would you be pleased to learn that this habit can be stopped often within two to three days.   My toilet training method has been used on all the parrots that I have owned with great success.   I must admit that there have been a few accidents but birds will be birds!  

Toilet training your parrot must be one of the most useful things you can teach your parrot.   The time spent training your bird will be repaid many fold in time saved clearing up the usual mess of an untrained bird.

How do I toilet train my parrots?

I first create a "toilet" area, either using a parrot stand and/or newspaper or tray to catch any mishaps.

I use the command "toilet".

I give a reward in the form of a treat – a piece of fruit or a nut.

I have a great deal of patience.

Most birds of the parrot family will pass urine or solids every 20 minutes or so varied by the age and health of the bird.   You will need to be aware of how frequently your parrot does this when outside the cage.   I use my watch to time the frequency.   To toilet train your parrot effectively you will need to know this frequency.   This will give you an idea of when your bird is about to "produce".

At the appropriate moment take the parrot to the "toilet" area and give the command "toilet" every couple of seconds.   If your bird tries to move away from the area you must return it to the area and repeat this until he "performs" in the correct place.   Your parrot will not be able hold on forever and thus it will produce eventually.   If you allow it to move away from the designated area it will eventually perform elsewhere and you will have wasted a toilet training session.

When your parrot has used the toilet area appropriately you MUST make a fuss of it and give it a treat.   Following this allow your parrot to carry on with whatever it was doing before the toilet training started.   Repeat the above several times whilst the bird is out of the cage.   The more times you are able to repeat the toilet training in ay given day the faster your parrot will learn.

You must follow up your training sessions and ensure that your bird uses the toilet area every time it is out of the cage.   The toilet area must be easily accessible to your bird.   If it takes itself to the toilet area by itself you have completed your mission, however, if it fails to go to the area you will need to carry out further training and repeat all the steps above until your bird takes itself to the toilet area on its own.   However, do watch your bird and ensure that it does not make itself ill by holding on rather than using the toilet area.