asterroc | "Potty" training

I started Gabe (cockatiel) on "potty" training last week, and so far she's only had 2 accidents, out of sitting on my shoulder around 4 hours a day, and I'm not wearing an awkward dish towel on my shoulder all the time.

Not sure where I read about the method, probably from a link on this community, but here's what I'm doing. I take Gabe out or off of her cage and bring her to my work area. I place her on the arm of my chair and leave her there until she has pooped, or until she begs to come up to my shoulder. Then I let her up to my shoulder until it occurs to me that she's been there for a while (I aim for every 15 minutes or so). I pick her up and place her back on the arm rest of the chair and waited until she pooped before picking her back up and allowing her onto my shoulder again. Repeat until it's time to go back to her cage.

The hardest part to it is remembering to take her off my shoulder every fifteen minutes or so, and I'm pretty sure her rare "accidents" have been due to me forgetting, as she doesn't do anything to grab my attention when she needs to go. I worried a little at first that if I took her off my shoulder too often that she would try to "force" herself to go poop, but then I observed that if she was almost ready to poop, she would sit there for a while until she had pooped, but if she wasn't ready to poop, as soon as I put her on the armrest she would be scrambling to try to get back onto my shoulder. I haven't been using any verbal cues, shifting her location appears to be a sufficient trigger.

I think we're both really starting to get the hang of this, and it's really exciting to me, as Gabe's got the most watery poops ever! (And yes, she's been vet-checked and doesn't have parasites or anything, it's just the way her poop is.) And also I'll be moving in with my boyfriend soon and he is really uncomfortable with the thought of a bird pooping on him, so doesn't like to have Gabe sit on him at all, though he doesn't mind moving her from one place to another. But it's really great news if I get her "potty" trained / housebroken, and it's so little effort to do!

And some gratuitous pictures!

I give her treats on her playstand in these really tippy bowls - they're round and deep. She's figured out that if it tips, she can hold on with one foot and it won't tip quite so much.

And if she can't quite reach the last few seeds on the bottom of the bowl, she can lean on that foot a bit and it will tip the bowl forward just enough for her to reach them! (Don't worry, her main diet is mostly Harrison's now.)