My son has recently gotten a quaker . We are having some difficulty getting him to step up, he will only step onto a shoulder, not your finger. What should we do? We also we like to potty train him. Is this possible? '
Thanks
Cynthia
Full Version: New Here
Not sure how to teach to step up my bird just automaticly stepped on to my finger . Potty training thats easy with mine as he was about to make a poo i'd take him off me and place him either on the cage or near some news paper what ever is closer and say 'make a poo' now when he needs to go he warns me by saying make a poo. For 7 years now i don't get pooed on unless its by mistake . But it takes some time like everything . Ps welcome 
Welcome to the forum! As far as the step up goes.......just repeat, repeat and more repeat. He will soon get the idea. You can potty train your bird.....others have. I have heard pros and cons about it. I don't do it. I just know my bird goes about every 10 min, thereabouts.
Hello,
We trained Cora, our beautiful Cherry Head Conure, to "poop" on command, but only first thing in the morning. That said, she still poops when she has to throughout the day! So, if you have a bird, get used to the poop!
Cora "saves up" her poop all night long, so when I uncover her in the morning, she has to make a HUGE poop. She likes to come out immediately and sit on my shoulder when I uncover her, so I have had more than my share of HUGE Cora poops all down my back! Once I figured that she WAS going to poop within one minute of being uncovered, I would get her to step up on my finger and carry her to the bathroom, hold her over the toilet and say, "Poop Cora!" Since she had to poop anyway, it was a given that she was going to! Sometimes I would have to "tell" her to poop a few times before she would, but when she does, I ALWAYS give her a big, "GOOD GIRL!" and a kiss. I did not "teach" her to poop, I just taught her what the word "poop" means, and give her lots of love for doing what she was going to do anyway!
You will learn to read your bird's body language. They sort of "squat" when the are going to poop. If your bird is on your finger and you see the sign, you can quickly get him/her over a waste can and say "poop." When the birds are with us on the sofa, we can often get them over the waste can in time, if we are paying close enough attention to their body language.
Again, you are going to get pooped on...it's just part of being a birdie guardian. And please never make a big deal out of it when you do...it washes out!
We trained Cora, our beautiful Cherry Head Conure, to "poop" on command, but only first thing in the morning. That said, she still poops when she has to throughout the day! So, if you have a bird, get used to the poop!
Cora "saves up" her poop all night long, so when I uncover her in the morning, she has to make a HUGE poop. She likes to come out immediately and sit on my shoulder when I uncover her, so I have had more than my share of HUGE Cora poops all down my back! Once I figured that she WAS going to poop within one minute of being uncovered, I would get her to step up on my finger and carry her to the bathroom, hold her over the toilet and say, "Poop Cora!" Since she had to poop anyway, it was a given that she was going to! Sometimes I would have to "tell" her to poop a few times before she would, but when she does, I ALWAYS give her a big, "GOOD GIRL!" and a kiss. I did not "teach" her to poop, I just taught her what the word "poop" means, and give her lots of love for doing what she was going to do anyway!
You will learn to read your bird's body language. They sort of "squat" when the are going to poop. If your bird is on your finger and you see the sign, you can quickly get him/her over a waste can and say "poop." When the birds are with us on the sofa, we can often get them over the waste can in time, if we are paying close enough attention to their body language.
Again, you are going to get pooped on...it's just part of being a birdie guardian. And please never make a big deal out of it when you do...it washes out!
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