Potty Training Chickens, How-to!

[KeliD]

My husband had a friend with a house rooster. They went everywhere together...with the rooster riding on his shoulders as he drove his Harley Davidson. He potty trained the rooster who would crow at the door when he wanted to go out....even at a stranger’s house.

 

[healingtreeharp]

I have a cockatiel that will go potty on command. We taught it to go on a piece of paper. We put him there and say go potty. He always does or at least tries to. We got a second cockatiel and his first words were "go potty"!

I wish I would have trained my cockatiel 25+ yrs ago. But now we have a found chick that imprinted on us. Time to make life easier while still having a house chicken. Jeepers, never thought I'd say that! LoL
"Go potty! " LMBO

 

[khrisilou]

My son is a bird trainer and will be helping me target train my new babies. He told me to teach them to poop in one spot but I laughed, however, I may talk to him about that as well.

 

[Potpie2]

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.

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

(A.K.A. Hackles)

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

 

[SquarePeg]

Does anyone know if this would work for geese? (not chickens, but they're both egg-laying birds, so...) Everywhere I go it says they can't be potty trained due to not having a sphincter, but that's true for chickens too.

 

[Pepper-is-my-chick]

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.

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

(A.K.A. Hackles)

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

Hi, my chicks are 17 days old. At what age does one have to start? Because I don’t want to use their energy learning before growing. Thanks!

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Hi, my chicks are 17 days old. At what age does one have to start? Because I don’t want to use their energy learning before growing. Thanks!

I would guess the chicks would have to be big enough not to fall into the toilet while straddling the seat. IDK. I have never attempted to potty train a chicken, although I know someone who did this with a cat.

 

[Pepper-is-my-chick]

I would guess the chicks would have to be big enough not to fall into the toilet while straddling the seat. IDK. I have never attempted to potty train a chicken, although I know someone who did this with a cat.
I was thinking about teaching them to do outside... But I’ll consider the toilet... Thanks! (I really need help...It’s my first time to have chicks)

 

[MeowthLover_ThatsRight]

*Gasps in amazment*

 

[antonio1]

Why I'm here? For training my chickens, how could I do? I want to understand better how to manage my flock. So first problem is training to poop in a specific area. I have free chickens in my backyard but most of the time they like to poop on my terrace, so I have to clean all the time.
At this moment I'm using scaring them when they walk on my terrace. I also used a catching butterflies tool most used to catch them sometimes and to keep that tool at the entrance of terrace but still not work all the time.
I used lemons which should keep them away but still not working.
Also I'd like to train them to hand tame, but I have no idea how, even if I try all the time to feed them from my hand.

Should I use electronics with sensors to start sounds of hawk or starting sprinklers but water on my terrace also should not be nice for me.