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Polly Potty

House train your psittacine pal
 
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I've always wanted to have a parrot, but I would hate to have it stuck in a cage all day. However, I would also hate to have it pooing wheresoever it chose to. So this is a device for training a parrot to act like a civilised parrot and use the toilet.

I am going to describe the layout of this device now. First imagine a glass sheet. It is square, about 1 foot by 1 foot. But it is not vertical, nor horizontal - it is at a slope of 45 degrees.

Six inches above the sloping glass is a perch which the parrot can stand on to poo.

To the side of the glass sheet is a web-cam, which is attached to your computer. This looks through the glass sheet at a green wall. (You can choose your own colour, but it mustn't be white, as we shall see.)

When the parrot does a poo, it falls onto the glass sheet. The computer registers the change of colour in the picture from the webcam. It rewards the parrot by giving it a little bit of something parrots really like. I don't know what they like. Maybe chocolate.

It then automatically flushes water down the sheet to wash away the parrot poo and be ready for the next time Polly feels the call of nature.

Your parrot will thus learn that when it needs to poo it can get a reward by pooing in the right place. Your house will remain unblemished, and your newly responsible psittacine chum can be allowed to roam freely.
spacemoggy, Jun 07 2004

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       Or give it a quick-acting laxative when it's standing in the right place.
FarmerJohn, Jun 07 2004
  

       A good start; next how to teach what things are allowed to gnaw on.
kbecker, Jun 07 2004
  

       I'm with kbecker. My parrot was never in a cage, but it destroyed the curtains, the buttons on every single remote control we had on the house, among many many other things. He even started "carving" a nest on the ceiling. It's not about where they poo.
Pericles, Jun 07 2004
  

       I'm thinking you're teaching the parrot to poo, not where to poo, though that may come in time.
phoenix, Jun 07 2004
  

       Chocolate is toxic to parrots. My cockatiel also chews all the rubber and buttons it can get at. He loves electrical cords, remote controls, laptop parts, etc.   

       Parrot training books indicate that potty training just doesn't work. The closest you can get it to get them to ask to be moved over to a designated area. The usual recommendation is to train the owner to watch for the warning signs, and act fast.
Laughs Last, Jun 07 2004
  

       There isn't a parrot butt-plug?
ConsulFlaminicus, Jun 08 2004
  
      
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