How Often Does A Macaw Poop? Can You Potty Train A Macaw

Last Updated on February 9, 2022

All macaws poop like other birds. Do your macaw poop? How often does it poop? Does it poop everywhere? Are you concerned about the timings of macaws poop? Can you potty train your macaw? Is it reasonable to train your macaw to excrete its poop in the bathroom?

A macaw poops about 15-20 times a day, depending upon its size. Larger macaws poop less while smaller ones poop a lot after every 15 min- 20 minutes. You can successfully potty train a macaw by using a simple toilet training command in seven days. It is possible only with love, patience, and consistency.

Coming forward with interest, how often would it release its waste material? Is it safe to potty train a macaw because of its friendly behavior and reasonable response to the potty training?

You will find ways to observe your macaw’s poop in this article. You will also see what if they overeat or any contaminated feed. Are the poops of all macaws similar?

Let’s move forward to discuss the poop of macaws.

Why do macaws poop?

Like all living organisms, macaws poop daily. It depends upon the size of the macaw and its health. Every species has the characteristic of pooping around the area of living.  

It is healthy to poop 15-20 times a day because macaws do not have sphincter muscles to control their bowel movement.  If they poop too much, they might be suffering from any infectious disease. On the other hand, if pooping is less than usual, it means their diet is not proper.

Are the poops of all macaws similar?

It varies from species to species depending upon their health conditions. A healthy macaw droops after every 20 minutes. The droppings consist of three parts.

• The green part is the waste material coming from the intestine
• The white part is urate coming from the kidneys
• The liquid portion is the urine of macaws

The poop color and consistency will help to tell about the health of the macaws. A healthy macaw’s poop is grass green to dark green. If your parrot is underfed, its poop will be black.

How often do they poop?

Larger size macaws poop after 60 minutes if appropriately fed. In contrast, smaller macaws poop about 15-20 times after every 15-20 minutes. The reason behind this is their size which carries more food resulting in less poop.

The color and consistency of macaw drooping depend upon the diet also. If a macaw is taking pellets in their diet, the poop color will be brown. If you consume more fruits and vegetables and food with more water content, soft and watery poop comes out.

 You need to observe the body language and poop off your macaw carefully.

Is the macaw’s poop smelly?

The normal poop has no smell, but sometimes you observe a foul odor from your macaw droppings. It may be due to the bad health of your macaw relevant to digestion.

Fresh droppings are not smelly, but as time passes, they become dry and accumulate inside the cage producing a foul odor. Cleaning the pen is necessary for the better health of your pet. It is a time taking process and would be difficult for the owner to do this regularly.  If cleaning is not routinely done, it may cause:

• Growing bacteria and fungi
• Respiratory tract infection
• Lungs health 
• Can be a carrier of contagious diseases

In case of any health issues, you must consult your vet. It is better to potty train a macaw.

How to potty train a macaw?

Avoid mess inside the cage, where macaws poop every 15-20 minutes. It is laborious to clean. Most larger birds like macaws are used to going to the bathroom if trained with little effort.

Before training, you must keep in mind that macaws are exotic species, and their poop after every 30 minutes depends on the species and diet they are taking. Potty training your macaw is possible with consecutive training of one week.

Do not expect your bird to be perfect in potty training because macaws do not have sphincter muscles to control their bowel movements for longer. You can also train the macaw through the following step. Let’s discuss.

1. Observe the natural behavior of macaw when it is ready to go to the toilet carefully. Usually, the macaws squat down slightly and flick their tails up when ready to poop. 
2. Observe how often they poop?
3. Observe their body language when ready to poop. You will get an idea of how often you need to take your macaw to the toilet.
4. Select a command that must be simple and easy to understand, like Go potty or Hurry up. Your parrot gets familiar with this command when ready to go for the toilet.
5. Select the area in the cage as a potty spot. It must be easy to locate and accessible by the macaws. You can use some paper plates, newspapers or paper towels.
6. Keeping in mind the natural behavior of getting ready for pooping, observe the macaws. When you notice the macaw is squatting and flicking its tail and it is ready to poop. Then give it the Step up command. Allowing your macaw to jump on your hand, then move it to the potty spot in the cage.
7. Stay there until your macaw goes to the potty spot. Give him the command to go potty when it is ready to poop. It will make a connection, and macaw will learn to go potty with this sound.
8. Give it treats if it poops after your command. Follow the routine if a macaw does not learn fast. Some species are fast learners. 
9. The treat must be healthy and should be given on the spot. It will encourage the macaw to go potty after your command.
10. It is a time-consuming process, so be patient and take your bird to the potty spot as often as needed.
11. Your parrot will be potty trained within one week if you are consistent. Some learn fast, while the others are slow, so be calm and never scold or hit your bird. Hitting will discourage the bird.
12. Younger birds who are familiar with you can learn fast as compared to new adults.

Conclusion

Hence, macaws poop a lot. Pooping is natural, and as they lack sphincter muscles, they can not control their bowel moments. They poop every 15-20 minutes, depending upon their sizes. You can judge the health of a macaw by observing its poop. Smelly poop means the macaw digestive system is upset. You can monitor the husbandry of macaws if the consistency of poop is not normal. Being an exotic bird, it poops everywhere, causing unhygienic conditions leading to different contagious diseases. So you can potty train your macaw by using a command with love and patience.

Read A Complete Guide About: How to Train your Macaw?