Anyone litter box train their chicks?

[chickenscratchings]

We have two 13 day old chicks that are still indoors, and will be for another 2-3 weeks. After that, they will have a back yard coop and free range in a fenced back yard in mostly urban Madison, WI.

They love running around the house, seek us out, roost on our shoulders. They will settle into the brooder box at night, but won't stay in unless we cage them otherwise, and the truth is, they are just too cute and friendly to keep them locked away. We enjoy having them run around the house with us.

But, as you guessed, our floor is a mine field of poops that we try to scoop up as soon as possible, but the volume is amazing. I've read that chickens are very trainable, and these two certainly learn fast how to get where they want. Has anyone trained them to use a litter box or similar?

The effort would be worth it, because come winter, it would be nice to have some indoor time with them, too.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Most people just use chicken diapers indoors. It's like a larger version of a parrot flight suit. Parrots can be potty trained. You could look into the process for doing that. I'd plan on working with one chicken at a time, for training.

 

[chickenscratchings]

thanks for the thought...I did do a search for training parrots, parakeets, love birds and the like, and got some reasonable approaches

I've been around parakeets, and these chicks are much more interactive and smarter than any parakeet I've known, so I'm thinking it may be possible. The general advice is to get the birds to associate going with a command, first by watching them for when they are about to go, stating the command, and praising them. Then you move them to a location to do it.

We'll see...worth a try, and I'll report back in a week.

 

[dangerouschicken]

http://www.chickendiapers.com/

I don't agree with them, but to each his/her own