Potty Training Chickens, How-to!

[Mandynic]

My husband and I plan to keep our 2 silkies in the house (funny that hubby actually suggested this because it took me a full year to convince him to even get chickens in the first place!). We have five 3-week-old chicks currently taking up residence in our spare bedroom - once we get our coop completed, we'll be moving 3 of them out there. It's funny how attached we are to them already - they're fun to watch and have such different personalities (I swear that one of them is the chick version of my husband!). I plan to start potty training the silkies in the next week or so. Hopefully it goes more smoothly with the chicks than it's been with our cats - I've been trying to get our cats to use the toilet for almost a year now (the cats are older and stubborn, but have slowly been making progress). I'll try to take pics/video along the way and get them posted if we're successful.

 

[rosiekitty94]

I really wish I could do this! I can especially picture a silkie as a great indoor pet. If only my cat wasn't so mean. she can barely tolerate ME being inside!

 

[Lollyberrybliz]

The first step to forming your chicken into a wonderful pet is potty training.so you can  bring your favorite chicken inside, and enjoy each others company more often, without having to pickup after him at the same time.


A few notes:

1. In order to potty train your chicken,He MUST be hand tamed this mean he can sit on your hand without assistance.(Such as holding him in place or having both hands on him).This means the chicken should sit freely on your hand, and more importantly,enjoy it.


2. There will  be accidents even after training your chicken to use a specified area to poop, just as would a dog, or any other household pet, accidents happen, you may have to pick up a few .


3.No Praise! Chickens do not do well with complex words as praise it will just confuse things, and we do not use them to tell them that they have done a good job. If you want to reward a chicken, give him a treat.The way to a chickens heart is through his stomach./img/smilies/tongue.png


4. Patience! Training your chicken does take time, especially with complex exercises such as this, you must be patient and work with your chicken.


5. The younger the betterAs with any animal, Young chickens who have been hand tamed make the best candidates for potty training, it is easier to train them at a younger age(around 3 week's is optimal) but this is not saying that it cant be done with older birds.


Ok let's get down to business! (no pun intended)


First we will teach your chicken to poop on command,  this is not absolutely necessary but it does help a lot. Training this behavior is all about Anticipation anticipating when your bird is going to go is a key factor in training him. Many birds ruffle their feathers right before they do, some don't. watch your bird in the coop and, see how he acts right before pooping.


When you bring him inside have an area for him to go in, Such as a litter box, or paper's.


Hold your chicken on your arm, and do something idle like watching tv, or even forum'ing on BYC, watch your bird closely for signs  that he is about to go.


Side-NoteYou need a signal such as a Click,hand signal, or whistle for the next step,No words!! this will be the command for pooping, try to choose a signal that you don't use everyday , it may lead to accidents)


When you think the bird is about to go, swiftly take him to the designated area and  hold him over it, until  you hear the tell-taleSquit! use the signal that you've chosen , and IMMEDIATELY reward him with a treat.


Repeat this process when you think he is about to go, until you can give the signal for him to go!


Once you have trained the above you can move on to the next step,this one is pretty easy.


During training the above

you should have noted a pattern in timing around which your bird will poop,

when it's almost time, set the bird down on the area designated,and give the command for poop,if he goes reward him  promptly, if he doesn't do not reward him. (Only reinforce the behavior your trying to train, nothing else.) Systematically practice this exercise until he start's going on his own.


Wishing you good luck and lot's of Fun-

                                                               Mark /img/smilies/wink.png

                                                                      (A.K.A. Hackles)


PS:If there is interest I will write another article keeping chickens as house pets just let me know!

umm, what if, 1, its a duck, 2, i already accidently taught her not to poop while being held? the "comfortable being held" thing isnt a problem, though. she's lived in the house all her life; i just wish i could stop cleaning up after her so much! if it helps, she is a muscovy, and about 11/2 years old.

 

[hedz82]

bantam orps make the best house chickens. they cuddle and follow you like puppies, without the allergies. and they dont poop a lot at all!

 

[1 duck]

I have a duck he is inside lives well with my dogs I want to try potty training him I also saw duck dippers I will look into that. ppl saying birds r dumb I don't be leave they are he is 5 months old I don't know much about ducks but I know I love my Quakers yes that's his name lol ` he is my baby I never knew ppl had ducks inside I thought I was wearerd lol but its all over youtube

 

[Crazy4Fowl]

Thanks for the help! I will try it with my Mille Fleur bantam chicken.

 

[tnmommy]

Late to the party here, but I would just love to do this with my favorites. I'm a behavior analyst, I can use it as a case study. Right?
True story- BF Skinner trained pigeons to guide missiles. Yes he did. The US military did not opt to use them, but he trained pigeons to peck on moving images of ships to obtain treats. They were able to keep the image centered after training was complete. Yep.

Now, don't they miss scratching though? Do you just give them an area where they can scratch for treats? I've heard chickens will chase and kill mice. Maybe a few house chickens since we can't have indoor cats??

I don't see my husband going for this. But if I could bring my Speedy and Sweetie inside, that would be sweet. They are like puppies. Speedy hatched in record time, if you are wondering where that name comes from.

 

[hedz82]

Late to the party here, but I would just love to do this with my favorites. I'm a behavior analyst, I can use it as a case study. Right?
True story- BF Skinner trained pigeons to guide missiles. Yes he did. The US military did not opt to use them, but he trained pigeons to peck on moving images of ships to obtain treats. They were able to keep the image centered after training was complete. Yep.

Now, don't they miss scratching though? Do you just give them an area where they can scratch for treats? I've heard chickens will chase and kill mice. Maybe a few house chickens since we can't have indoor cats??

I don't see my husband going for this. But if I could bring my Speedy and Sweetie inside, that would be sweet. They are like puppies. Speedy hatched in record time, if you are wondering where that name comes from.

Haha that's sweet! I read about the pigeons as well, but Skinner was all over quite cruel I think. The kind of animal experiments you don't want to see. But I guess they did contribute to our understanding a lot. Do you work with people or animals normally? I find animal cognition and evolutionary psychology fascinating. If I hadn't become a molecular biologist I would have done that! Funny enough, I just adopted a new dog from a shelter (our third) and he is great with my pet hen, really quite disinterested, grew up with cats I think, so small animals out of bounds. But I am starting to think he is a little stupid, I've been trying to teach him his name with treats, and its been three days and he still doesn't seem to really get the point half the time. Shame, maybe he is a bit retarded. My hen seems quicker to learn than him! By the way his name is Wallace, because my other boy is Darwin.. get it?
Tell us some interesting anecdotes about your work! And your chooks of course!

Oh, and yes, they HAVE to be able to scratch and forgage and dustbathe, its very cruel if they can't. My hen can go outside freely in the garden and do as she pleases. She also socializes with the wild guinea fowl. She always comes inside to spend time with me and sit on my arm or shoulder or on the table where I am working when I am home. Very sweet!

 

[PrintedPerfect]

That is hillarious, What happens if you house trained said chicken and you aren't home when he does his "business" to give him a treat? I have potty trained broody hens but never any other chickens, I have house seramas that i would LOVE to try this on.

I have a hen that just hatched eggs this weekend. Can you tell me how or is it too late? Would love to bring her inside, she's my sweetie.

Thanks!

 

[abbygibson1212]

This post cracks me up

But I am glad I found it, I have a 3 and a half week old salmon faverolles pullet that I'm considering potty training, she seems pretty smart and she acts like a dog more than a chicken, reason I'm thinking of potty training her is because she's already at the bottom of the pecking order with the 3 chicks that she's in the brooder with, and I'm afraid once I put them all in the big coop with my other hens she will be excluded from everything and be picked in since she's so nice and laid back. I've seen my chickens starve out a chicken before because she just didn't fit in (RIP) and I don't want this to happen to my little salmon girl becuase she is my favorite, plus chicken deaths are alway sad wether they're your favorite or not. Only problem is, I don't know how to introduce her to my cat, my cat is indoors and has never seen a chicken or a bird, and she's pretty small, so I think she could potentially get along with her, but she's also a spaz, so I'm trying to figure out how to do this safely, my Tom cat outside loves chickens and rubs his head on them and sleeps by them, so I know cats and chickens can be friends. Any advice?