Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!uupsi!cci632!rka
From: rka@cci632.UUCP (Robert Anton)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: INDOOR- Toilet Training
Summary: kaka
Keywords: kaka
Message-ID: <54180@cci632.UUCP>
Date: 1 Mar 91 02:28:50 GMT
References: <7374@fs2.cam.nist.gov>
Reply-To: rka@ccird7.UUCP (Robert Anton)
Organization: CCI, Communications Systems Division, Rochester, NY
Lines: 17

In article <7374@fs2.cam.nist.gov> blue@cam.nist.gov (Jim_Blue_x3809) writes:
>We are new owners of a friendly 12-week-old African Red-Breasted Parrot,
>poicephalus rufiventris. He likes to come out to play, but drops his
>droppings fairly indiscriminately on shoulders or laps. What techniques
>have people used to train their parrots to use the cage bottom and spare
>the clothing and rugs?

Opus, our cockatoo, learned quickly by methods previously described in other
replies.  In addition to verbal cues at appropriate times ("kaka"- sh_t in many
foreign countries), we found that rotating his training stick in the direction
of his natural "kaka" motion (bird must be on stick) assisted in getting the
point across.  

When we moved from CA to NY, Opus rode in the car with us in a dog kennel. He
never once "kaka'ed" in his kennel.  His requirements were a rest stop every
1 to 1 1/2 hrs. Usually he had to go so bad that I barely had time to get his
butt out the door.