Potty Training Chickens, How-to!

[whitewillow]

Thank you! I am enjoying live chickens for the first time. I am pleasantly surprised at how much personality each bird has and at how social they are. Two of my reds keep trying to come into the house to eat the dog food and to hang with the rest of the flock (people, dog, cats). I jokingly told the chickens, that I would allow them in the house if they could be potty trained. Now I know how. Again, thank you!

 

[teddiliza]

What a great find! We'd trained both our cockatiels to 'go potty' on command, and even though we don't play with them as much since one started biting, they still will try to poop when you say 'go potty. The mean one that bites says 'Go potty George, Go potty!' It's a riot when we have company over and they can understand what the birds are saying. I'm glad to hear chickens can learn it too! I have an older barred Rock hen that is an egg eater, and I'd love to be able to keep her in the house if I thought her claws wouldn't damage the carpet. I also have a male and female d'uccle that are the sweetest most petable chickens I've ever owned, they actually seem to like being held and snuggled that I'd love to keep in the house so their foot feathers wouldn't be so raggedy.

 

[Fluffybirdie]

YES!!!
Please post more house hen ideas!

I used to be on a board of over 2,000 members called House Chickens. Obviously, some breeds make better pets than others. Silkies make great lap birds.
Chicken diapers and chicken panties make any bird a polite guest.
Mine began out of a bullying incident.

I'll never forget one day as I was entertaining a guest. I was trying to ignore Elvis (wacky Silver Laced Polish hen) who was jumping up and down in front of the glass doors.
Then my guest said, "Excuse me, but is that a chicken knocking at your door?"
I kept a box in my computer room and Elvis would only lay there. So I blushed, opened the door, Elvis ran down the hall, then about 10 minutes later, she ran back to the door to go out.
Many hens will sit for hours in your lap while watching TV or surfing.

I have parrots who poop on command, so the idea was never offensive to me. My parrots even learned to lean back and fake it if they don't have to go. Racehorses are all trained to go on command.

Check out this cool site:
http://alexthemanabouttown.blogspot.com/

 

[lovetobake]

That is really helpful.
Thanks

 

[rivers2011]

Quote:
So you have tried it?! I'll definitely do it when I have the time.

 

[so lucky]

Due to the coop STILL not being completed, I have 6 eight week old chickens in a pretty small "brooder" in our basement. I let them out to run/fly around the basement every day, to give them exercise and fight boredom. They seem to poo "on command" with the command being let out on the floor. I have no doubt that they hold their poo in, in anticipation of getting to poo on the basement floor, and watching me run around behind them with toilet paper cleaning it up! With only 6 chickens, they make about 75 separate piles during the hour or two they are out of the brooder. I am not exaggerating. They also seem to be able to do more than the usual number of caecal poops, dark, glue-like and super stinky. I will be so gladwhen my DH gets the coop finished. This has been the ordeal of a lifetime.

 

[Carpe DiHen]

That is very cool! I remember the frustration of waiting to get them outside and into the coop. Mine were in my dining room. It was fun, but I was done! Hope your coop is ready soon!

 

[brandislee]

Quote:
I know I'm replying to this about a year late, BUT I just have to respond with a comparison- Supposedly children up until the age of 4 or 5 aren't supposed to be able to feel when they need to go, either, yet most kids are potty trained long before that age (it was some biological place I read that was supposed to be supporting child lead potty training and waiting to do it... I can't remember exactly where though). And while the 4 or 5 age may be debatable, most everyone would agree that an infant can't control their functions, either, but I know of many moms, as the earlier post mentioned, who EC (elimination communication... and hippy dippy? Really? Not nice.) their kids from birth by teaching their infants to go on command while being held over a toilet or other appropriate place (in fact, it's almost identical to clicker training a chicken). So, while biology may say one thing, many many anecdotals in both cases prove it wrong.

 

[stargirl]

Adding to the chickens-can-hold-it argument, my white star rarely poops in the night. She saves it all up and then does a huge one as soon as she gets out in the morning. Seriously, its like something a dog would do!
I guess she just likes a clean house!

 

[yegg]

My little Serama is the same way, she saves up all her waste at night and releases the kraken when I let her out in the morning. Her pen is the cleanest place in the yard...

I'm getting a clicker and trying this out. I'll report back with results sometime.