green cheek conure wont EVER poo in cage

[moonmoon]

ive had my male green cheek for about just over 2 months, he is almost 4 months old. i am trying so hard to teach him while he is a baby. but he just refuses to poo in his cage. usually i have to take him out and tell him "go poo" on the neswspaper on the table, sometimes he will or sometimes he flys on the floor and does it which is really frustrating and gross (the morning poo is always HUGE) he is out of his cage 90% of the time, he hates it in there so much and i cant handle his screams, its a large cage with plenty of room and toys too. but he just will not poo in there, im sick and tired of cleaning up poo every ten minutes. its ok during the day i suppose since we are playing games, but honestly, the fact that i have to get him out each day at 9.30 and tell him to poo is ridiculous. im about to have a baby so i wont be able to do this everyday, i need him to learn to poo in his cage. this morning i did not let him out, i told him "go poo" in cage several times but he just jumps around and chirps, tears newspaper. he is still in there as i type! he just wont poo and im afraid he will be mad at me/be stressed, im also worried this is bad for his bowels since he is holding it in for so long. when he eventually does a poo i will reward him and tell him "good boy" and give him a favorite treat.. but does anyone have any advice? i feel so bad for him! has anyone else had this problem but has done well with training? i appreciate the help! everytime i tell him "go poo" he makes angry noises, i think he knows what im trying to make him do but he is telling me no!

 

[Kalidasa]

Try using the same word, like "poop" every time he poops. By now you can tell when he will. And make a big deal about it, like he did something awesome and talented then he will associate the word with the action. Especially the morning poop. Then you, in time, will be able to tell him "poop" in the morning and he'll do it before he comes out. Treating when he poops at the same time you say it is also good. You just have to be observant.
In the morning after I pull off the covers (conure) I position a paper towel under his swing where he waits to come out, then as I'm opening the blinds a say "poop" several times until he poops on the paper towel, then he gets out. Also in the beginning I would stand in front of his cage, and do a few squats as I said poop (lol) and he would squat also, and poop...much to the amusement of my partner. Also, yours is still a kid, and lots of things will change about him within the next few years. But you're right, it's not healthy for them to hold it for prolonged periods, so in the meantime make sure he has hourly poop-breaks.

 

[moonmoon]

thanks, i will do just that! the only problem is he has been in there since 9.30 last night, it is now 11.35am the next day and he has still not pooped, im going to have to let him out right now cause i cant bear to put him through this anymore, i just hope its not taking a few steps back in the training process... like now he will probably think if he holds it in long enough he will eventually win. i will continue to do this each day and hopefully there will be some progress. i feel cruel for making him hold it in for so long though i hope its not doing any damage to him.. which is why im going to have to let him out.

 

[Kalidasa]

They hold their poop all night. But he should definitely poop first thing in the morning, no matter what. Just do the poop thing on top of the cage for now until he gets it.

 

[moonmoon]

ah yes, doing it on top of the cage is a way better idea than doing it somewhere else, thankyou. the cage is a dome shape so hopefully the poo doesnt slide off lol. thankyou very much

 

[Ronnie517]

Thanks to you two, I am learning soooo much! hahaha I really find this all so interesting!

 

[Squirt]

My sun did this for awhile. When home I had her balcony door open next to the play stand. She would always come out to poop on the play stand. In the morning I wouldn't let her out until she did her big, first of the day "plop." So she started hanging onto the bars and shooting her poop outside the cage! It would get on the floor and on the bars but not the floor of her cage. This went on for months. Now she appears happy enough to poop in there. ??? I never tried to potty train her.

 

[Ollie_Ash]

moonmoon, my GCC does this too. She about 3months now and she rarely poops in the cage. I have to let her out every morning for the "big one". Also, she will hold herself throughout the day, while I am at work. She only poops, when I let her out of her cage.

Really concerned about her health. Does anyone has any info on this.

 

[Flboy]

I will take my Jojo out in the morning, he will not poop on us, he is very good at this. While sitting here in the morning he is on his personal play stand that is in my bedroom, which he will not poop on. After a bit, I bring him out to the main room play stand which he then does his dump. It takes time, but it is no different than teaching any toddler, as you will soon learn! FYI, another thing, be careful about teaching your baby that screaming gets him out of his cage. This one can be ugly to break!

 

[Mallory]

Others have given you similar advice already but...I would do some googling on clicker training - just enough that you understand how it works, what the click or bridge is, and how to capture and shape behaviors.

Work with him on something simple like stepping up or turning, just a behavior that will be easy to put on cue to boost his confidence. This way he understands the process and you get experience without messing up the "poop" training which is more important to get right!

Then, start capturing pooping. I mean whenever you see him poop, click and reward for it. Eventually you can add a cue - "poop, go, empty" - anything simple. Make sure you go slow because you can't solve an issue like this quickly, but if you are patient you can get a lot done. Once you get him pooping on cue you can start asking for it in different places and eventually inside of his cage. Make it fun - the door does not have to be shut at first. You could even start on top of his cage or on a perch on the outside before asking for it inside his cage. By the end of it he should be comfortable pooping in his cage and on cue when outside which will help minimize messes.

I would not force him to hold it inside of his cage however. Not only is he frustrated, he is then associating that negative feeling with being inside of his cage. Personally, I use cages and kennels as safe home bases for my animals and never want them to be associated with time outs or frustration. Eva, my conure, wants to be out most of the day so she has a schedule which includes being caged during sleeping hours and for a few hours during the day. We made her cage "home base" so even when the door is open she spends a lot of time on and in it. We make sure to vary it somewhat so she never knows exactly when she should be out. This way we ensure she is comfortable being in her cage when we need.

And as others have said, if you open the cage while he is screaming he has learned that screaming gets him out of his cage. Once reinforced this is a frustrating behavior to break but ignoring him until he is quiet is best. Eva knows that she can be noisy when playing but that if she screams for attention or out of cage time we leave the room.

 

[moonmoon]

hi there, thanks for the advice but this post is really old, i no longer have the pooping in cage problem, however he does scream 24/7 and i have just come to terms with the fact thats just the way he is, he will scream in the cage and out.. all the time and theres not much i can do about it but try to distract him.

 

[Lena]

I have 2 green cheeked conures. Ones a year old and the the other one I recently adopted is eight years old. I was having the same issue before and I tried to train them to poop by command. Basically the same thing was happening they were holding it in till 11 or 12 in the afternoon. So I decided to to try to move their cage into a different room to change the environment for them and have them sleep in the same room their cage was in before but in a travel bag. This is optional because I already had one. Just provide them with two cages so they can sleep in one but hangout throughout the day in another one. It helped me so far. I’m pretty sure this problem is caused because good owners like us we try to give our birds a lot of freedom.
Hope this helps!

 

[Pilaf]

Echo also hardly ever poops in his cage. During the day his cage is open all the time, so he can go where ever he wants to. But sometimes when we are away for a few hours, then he's in his cage and he never poops in it. He does understand the word 'poopie', but he won't poop in his cage by himself.

 

[Sunnyclover]

My Ollie baby used to be the same way. It turns out he didn't want to poop where he sleeps. I got him a sleep cage he never poops in which is actually great because I don't have to clean it as often. A lot parrots don't like to poop where they sleep.