Potty Training Chickens, How-to!

[thndrdancr]

Chickens CAN hold it, its just some are more clean conscious than others. I imagine just like people. I have a little hen I could totally housetrain. She never ever pooed on us, ever, and we used to hold her a lot. She would squirm if she needed down to go poo. She hates stepping in it. She wont poo if I have her in my bed with me either. She just somehow "knows". She is a showgirl and also goes broody often. Never ever poos on the eggs. She will come off once every two or three days and do a huge horse poo.
She had a little D'uccle share her nest one time and she got SO MAD, cuz the D'Uccle will go where and when she has to pretty much. She finally chased her out of the nest when there was one time too many 'accidents'.

She also learns. I have had two chickens I could housetrain if I chose to. Now the others, I must admit, no amount of training would make them hold their poo, or train.
It helps if they are very poo conscious. The two I had totally hated stepping in it, or having it where they had to step in it. One EE hen I had even kept and taught the other from pooping in the little mini desk coop I had set up for them. It was amazing. I even took pictures when I went to clean it out a month later, not one poop in it.

 

[kd949]

I have a 6 week old Buff that we have not really introduced to the other two hens (they chase her). She LOVES being with us and with the dog inside! She still sleeps inside and spends a lot of time roaming around the house when I'm home (she's in the spare (tiled) bathroom when I'm not). I would LOVE to potty train her! But what is this about diaper?? If the potty training doesn't work (I never got the bunny to do it!) where in the world do you find diaper for hens???????

So glad to hear I'm not the only crazy person who has a chicken in my house (and on my lap) most of the time!!

 

[ParrotsNPullets]

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Not to beat a dead horse as I've seen several rebuttals to this statement already, but my parrots have also shown the ability to hold their excrement. For instance my husband's Green Cheeked Conures always hold it overnight, and if you are unlucky enough to look when they wake up and get out out of their bed-tents, EW those are some HUGE and nasty bird-bombs! My Quaker Parakeet and my Patagonian Conure both hold their poop and show me they need to go to their bathroom perch with body language- either a head bob in the direction of the perch, pointing with their bodies in the direction of the perch (and sometimes a nip if I'm not paying attention!) and the Quaker even says "take a poop" when she has to go.

I was toying with the idea of keeping one of my bantam rooster chicks due in a couple weeks in the house and possibly training it to potty or using the diaper method. It's good to know others have done this successfully. I'll have to do more research about whether or not I would be exposing my parrots to disease if I kept a chick from a hatchery in our house & never let it come in contact with the other chickens.

 

[Carpe DiHen]

Quote:
Here is a link to buy a chicken diaper. It's not the cheapest place, but just to give you the idea:

http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/product-search.aspx?catID=0&Strname=diaper&CatName=

If you search on diaper on BYC, you will find a thread to a video that shows how to make one.

 

[elmo]

It's a myth that chickens lack intelligence and can't be trained. The average chicken is quicker to train than the average dog:

http://www.legacycanine.com/workshops/chicken-camps.html

 

[Carpe DiHen]

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That is so cool!

Wait a minute, what's with the purple egg??

 

[PrinceSandwich]

This is a really cool thread! I would LOVE to do this if my parents ever let me ( thats doubtful).

 

[BunnyMomma]

I don't have any house trained chickens, however, I have a very smart 10 year old seabright chicken! She thinks she is a dog though. She guard the playpen outside where I put my growing chicks. She clucks like crazy and comes to get me if anything is amiss in the yard. I doubt many people know that a chicken can be so smart. She has free run of the farm. I call her Grandma and she hangs out with all three of my dogs. This was a cool post!

 

[CJW]

This is so freakin' crazy-awesome, I might even try it! Although, if my husband comes home and sees a chicken in the house, he'll freak out!

I guess I just want them to poo in a poo box so I have less mess to clean up in the coop!

I am new to chickens (and have yet to get them), but I am a firm believer that you can train almost any animal! Heck, I used to have a cat that pooed in the toilet!

I have a little experience with on-command training...I started teaching my oldest son to pee and poo on-command at 5 months (Although I should have started earlier, but he was completely poop-trained by 11-12 mo and pee trained by 2-he is still a very active, easily-distracted kid.). I used "pssssss" as the sound. I wonder if I used "poo" if that would work for them?

This is very, very interesting.

Boy, when they say this forum is addicting, I thought-eh--yeah...right.

No-REALLY- I am going to bed. If I stay up one more night reading chicken stuff.....man...this is not good from my sleep pattern! (Although, I do dream about chickens, so...)

 

[prov31gal]

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isnt that called ecc or elimination communication? ive heared of that, for kids not animals. but im super skeptical, how can a baby poo on command if they dont have to poo? it seems hippy dippy to me but ive read about people who think its awsome.