Potty Training?

[cluckcrazy]

Sorry if this sounds like the weirdest question EVER, but can you litter train/potty train a chicken? LOL that does sound weird. But for chickens kept as pets in the house, it would be nice not to have to worry about chicken poop or changing diapers. Seriously!

 

[megan80568]

They don't have the ability to control their excretions so no.

 

[cluckcrazy]

They don't have the ability to control their excretions so no.

Okay.

 

[Mandynic]

I disagree - broody chickens can "hold it" for quite a long time, and I have chickens that will refuse to poop on their humans (as soon as we put them down, they go). Others have successfully potty trained their chickens (or so they say). I plan on trying the clicker training method for my chickens in the next week or so. From what I understand, the younger you start training them, the better. It will also take some patience and dedication (and plenty of treats).

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

You can try teaching them to "go potty" but I am not optimistic. We had parrots, and parrots are WAY smarter than chickens. The parrots were trained to "go poo" if you put them down on the perch and gave the command. But this wasn't really training the parrot, it was training the people. The parrots couldn't hold their excretions voluntarily. Instead, you just knew that they would need to go every 20-30 minutes. So, you saw your 20 minute deadline coming up, you'd put them on the perch, and tell them to go. Then you'd know you had another 20-30 minutes before they'd have to go again.

 

[Imp]

Apparently others have done it:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/392545/how-to-potty-train-your-chicken

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/125001/potty-training-chickens-how-to

Imp- best of luck