Potty frustrations

[kodeblue]

We have had our ginger for about 2 1/2 months now. She is about 16 weeks old. She spends most of the day out of her cage except when we have to go out obviously. Our problem is she isn't training very well. I tried the leaving her in the cage for 10 minutes in the morning after we take her cage cover off. She might be dropping the big poop before we get to her in the morning cause she hasn't done the big one out of her cage in awhile. However she does like to drop small poops whenever and wherever. If she is on our shoulder, she will waffle back to poop on the ground. When she does this I immediately put her back in the cage for a bit. After about 15 minutes being in the cage she will come out and almost immediately drop another poop. She does have a playtop on her cage and never poops there either.

Any ideas?

 

[LeaKP]

Sometimes it's just a small adjustment. Maybe change wake up by ten minutes? Maybe keep her off shoulders til you know she's done the poo and her shoulder time can be a reward. They're smart, you'll get it. Sounds like a delightful fid tho!

 

[Dinosrawr]

You have to learn their "schedule", if you will, and base it around that. If your bird goes to the bathroom every 10-15 minutes like my conure does, then within that time range remove the bird from yourself and place them in a location where it is acceptable for them to go potty. Use repetitive cues such as "Go Potty", or my personal favourite, "Bombs Away!" until they do so. Once they do, offer praise and fawn over how amazing it was that they just pooped. I don't recommend using food rewards as it can result in unhealthy training and might make the bird withhold bodily functions until they can be rewarded with their favourite treat.

Once your bird understands that they never go potty on you, only in certain locations, they'll reinforce it themselves. My conure hasn't pooped on me in years. My IRN flies off me to go potty in acceptable locations (unfortunately at times he thinks my boyfriend is one of them [emoji23]). It's not that your bird isn't training well, you just need to learn how to work around the animal you're trying to train is all. She has zero idea why she's being placed in the cage because you aren't giving her any verbal associations with what she should be doing (emphasis on should).