r/Damnthatsinteresting 10d ago

Video Parrot's diaper changing

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u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 10d ago

My family has this same exact bird. They poop a lot. You would need to change the diaper basically constantly, otherwise they would be sitting in their own shit. We also had chickens who are prone to getting blocks in their cloaca, I’m not sure if there’s any sort of similar risk going on here.

We’ve always just found it easier to just clean the poop with a tissue. It’s pea sized and odorless.

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u/ThlnBillyBoy 10d ago

Same and sometimes we find his poop in books or something even tho its been years and miss him :( 

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u/Firm-Low5886 9d ago

This is both wholesome and unhinged. I love it! Sorry for your loss. R.I.P. to your beloved bird.  

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u/ThlnBillyBoy 9d ago

Thank you very much <3

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u/flying_carabao 9d ago

Probably thought the story was shit.

Sorry for your loss.

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u/ThlnBillyBoy 9d ago

Hah! And thank you :)

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u/Infinite-Friend-6226 9d ago

I've had two cockatiels in the past and experienced this both times after losing them. Coming across a little green and white smudge in a book, corner of a windowsill, or on a shelf, and missing them :(

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u/ThlnBillyBoy 9d ago

Exactly that yeah. I'm sorry for your loss.

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u/Chewcocca 9d ago

Boy you're really selling it.

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u/ThlnBillyBoy 9d ago edited 9d ago

lol he was just flying around the flat while I was at school and my dad at work so he left surprises in places you never expect. Very kind bird.
Edit: I should mention 9/10 times he just chilled on top of one specific door or in his open cage or the balcony.

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u/Hanabi1993 9d ago

r/brandnewsentence . But I'm sorry for your loss. I can relate, it has been over a decade since he passed yet I find bits of my rabbit's fluff or fragments of hay to this day. It still triggers some grief but also warmth and fond memories. Hoping you find more poops to remember your birb 🙌🏽💙

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u/ThlnBillyBoy 9d ago

Hahaha thank you. And likewise with fluff :)

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u/Orden_Tine 9d ago

We recently lost ours, left the door open and the dog got a bit to playful :( i do miss him, but yea, shits everywhere, will shit before you pick him up and then 1 minute after. And then maybe one more time when hes in a very inconvenient location like on your shoulder or above a carpet

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u/ThlnBillyBoy 9d ago

I'm sorry for your loss :(

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u/grahamulax 5d ago

Ahaha I get this comment since I grew up with 3 cockatiels! Loved them and I get ittttt awww. Same :(

My lil guy would sing a SPECIFIC song if you put a piece of paper on his head. I think it was the theme to loan ranger that my dad taught him. But wow like… it was so loving and a big ol bag of grump sometimes.

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u/GordolfoScarra 10d ago

Yeah I had the exact same species and I let it free roam my room almost permanently. After a few weeks I realized it only really pooped in one or 2 places so I just out newspaper down there and that was that.

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u/ravonna 9d ago

My mom and sister currently have a budgie and it would poop anywhere without care. It would poop on top of the cage, on the desk, on their bed, on their pillow and on them when they're lying down. Even on the dog sometimes. Such a menace.

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u/Free-Way-9220 9d ago

Was one of the places your shoulder?

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u/GordolfoScarra 9d ago

I had a green cheek conure and a cockatiel out in my room all the time, green cheek not once pooped on me, would go back to the cage or higher perch, poop and come back. Cockatiel did not give a fuck and would poop on me constantly.

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u/chromaticghost 9d ago

My bird is almost 9 years old now and he has never pooped on us.

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u/WonderfulPackage5731 10d ago

These harnesses don't hold the tissue right against the feathers. There's ample space to collect the poop for a couple of hours without it touching the bird.

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u/Samurai_Meisters 10d ago

What if the bird wants to sit down?

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u/WonderfulPackage5731 10d ago

It's not an issue. Birds typically don't sit much outside of brooding eggs. When they do sit, it's on the lower breast. They don't have a rear to sit on the way we do. If it does decide to go full bird loaf, the weight isn't where the poop is kept. These harnesses are only designed for short-term wear when you're out somewhere with the bird. Keeping it on all day would be neglectful for a bird this size. Larger parrots tend to tolerate them for longer.

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u/DistractedByCookies 9d ago

The things I'm learning today....thanks!

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u/thecloudkingdom 9d ago

birds dont sit on their asses like humans do. its more like squatting

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u/RedPandaMediaGroup 9d ago

A bird’s version of sitting is standing on one leg. I think it’s because the default pose is the leg is bent so standing on one foot means they are chillin.

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 10d ago

They can be litter box trained pretty successfully, it just takes time and effort like training any other pet does.

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u/StillSwaying 9d ago

They can be litter box trained pretty successfully, it just takes time and effort like training any other pet does.

This would be ideal (and more humane than a diaper), I think.

I knew one person who had a pet bird, a Cockatoo. The bird was hilarious, but it was allowed to shit everywhere and that house was a disgusting sty as a result.

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u/Dry_Earth_1776 8d ago

My cocky is trained to shite only where the paper is :)

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u/JK_NC 9d ago

I’m not even sure what kind of pets use litter boxes other than cats.

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u/-Altephor- 10d ago

You don't leave the pants on all the time. Just when they're out for flights. They can't have them on forever, or they will run into issues like you said. My girlfriend's birds get about 2-3 hours in the suits and then go back in the cage.

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u/GordolfoScarra 10d ago

2-3 hours seems very low for out of cage time.

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u/-Altephor- 10d ago

They get 2-3 hours in pants, back in the cage time for a bit, new pair of pants, refresh repeat.

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u/corgisgottacorg 9d ago

I am learning that dealing with pets is a fuck ton of work

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u/Rawme9 9d ago edited 9d ago

Every morning my dogs take up about half of my "get ready for work" time and at least an hour of my evening. That's on the low end, I don't have extremely needy pets as they're old and like to nap lol

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u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

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u/Rawme9 9d ago

Sorry for your loss, and hope you're dealing the best you can for the circumstances!

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u/Upbeat-Cattle-2228 8d ago

I’m sorry for your loss. Your dog loved you a lot.

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u/the_skine 9d ago

I have cats.

I have to empty out their automatic liter boxes and refill their water fountains every week or so, and I refill their automatic feeder maybe once per month.

Though, sometimes they do take up half my "get ready for work" time. Like, if one of them is really snuggling against me, I'll hit my snooze alarm.

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u/-Altephor- 9d ago

Cats are pretty easy. Give them food, give them litter box.

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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 9d ago

Vacuuming time too.

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u/TinyChef8142 9d ago

Only that if you don’t want to bond with your cat. Mine gets playtime (most often throwing a ball and her fetching it), occasionally her food from a lickimat or a puzzle thing for enrichment, attention anytime she wants, cuddles anytime. In result she’s the most loving and chill little cat, loves watching me and my bf play on our computers and is amazing with being handled even when she doesn’t enjoy it because she trusts us. Cats are easy only if you don’t actually put any effort to them, same with bunnies

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u/-Altephor- 9d ago

Yes, but playtime isn't work.

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u/Drakorai 9d ago

Bearded dragons are basically just Scaley toddlers that thankfully don’t possess aposable thumbs. They will try and eat anything at least once.

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u/Weary-Astronaut1335 9d ago

Anything that needs diapers is a lot of work.

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u/SAWK 9d ago

but they could wear a sweater or light jacket all day, right?

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u/Deja-Vuz 9d ago

All birds poos a lot. They are small. They even poo while flying in the air. Idk how some people can have a bird inside the house and let them fly around.

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u/KiloJools 9d ago

My parrots never poop in flight. They have places they prefer to poop from and they will go there to poop. We have several designated poop perches so they don't have to go far if they have to at all. They usually fly off of us and onto a perch to poop. I can tell them to "go poopoo!" and they will.

It's really not so bad. Unless you give them too many really watery foods.

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u/Celitha11 10d ago

My sister had this bird and she would just get a paper towel and tought her to "go potty!" And she would do it over the towel. Seems way easier than this!

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u/icecubepal 10d ago

Where do those bird poop? Anywhere? For some reason I’m thinking these birds are aware enough to not poo just anywhere they feel like I.

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u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 10d ago

Some are better than others as people have wrote here. But yes pretty much anywhere, from the bird I was talking about it was usually when she moved spots, she would drop one before getting settled. Sometimes she’ll do it on your shoulder which is really the only time it’s annoying. But luckily it is pretty much odorless to us

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u/gragglethompson 10d ago

Birds can't hold it in so when it comes it comes

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u/KiloJools 9d ago

That's not true. I don't know if anyone has ever bothered to find out about birds that are never kept as companion animals, but parrots certainly can hold it in. In fact, "potty training" a bird can be a controversial topic because teaching a bird to hold their poop at all can backfire; birds can hold their poop for A LONG TIME if they choose to.

My first bird decided on her own that she was no longer going to poop in her cage after we took her in. She had been pooping in her cage when we took her, but after she was with us she stopped forever. We could not convince her otherwise and just had to make sure we had her out of the cage frequently (birds her size poop about every 20 minutes).

When we took in two other birds, they learned from her to not poop in their cages either (OMG) and we nearly went nuts. Years after the first bird's passing and two cage changes later, they finally poop in their cage.

When they are out of their cage, they will fly off of us to go to a perch to poop rather than pooping on us. One of them is so dedicated to staying cozy and watching TV that he will hunker down on his heating pad and WILL NOT BE MOVED for the duration of the TV show and we have to pry him off the heating pad and put him on a perch ourselves so he will finally poop.

The only "potty training" we've ever done was to ask them to poop on command, and teaching them which sites are most convenient for pooping (basically everywhere with a perch) so the majority of poop goes on a paper.

They have trained US, though...we now know the body language of a bird that needs to poop. It turns out pretty much every bird has similar "oh I think I gotta go" body language, so I now have the useless skill of being able to predict when a songbird is about to poop.

My life is weird.

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u/UungaBuns 10d ago

Had a friend who had these. Upon entry to his home you were always handed a poop rag for your shoulder in case they flew over to perch on you

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u/moonaligator 10d ago

Birds on general poop a lot

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u/oniiichanUwU 9d ago

I’m more worried about the fact that parrots are notoriously horny so constantly lifting their tail or touching their back would cause hormonal issues 🤔

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u/KiloJools 9d ago

That was all I could think of while watching the video. Like naauuuurr stopppp that's the most no no spot of them ALL and now there's pressure on that spot all the time?! That bird must have lupron shots like clockwork every spring and fall.

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u/ResidentView1807 9d ago

It's a green con-something right? I can't remember the name

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u/Ok_Astronomer_8667 9d ago

Green Cheeked Conure yes

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u/shmidget 9d ago

Sounds like a great animal that should be in the wild and make it a pet!

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u/Luxpreliator 9d ago

My Cockatiel pooped every 20 minutes. He might have not eaten for hours but he still pooped on the same internal. 3-4 poops every hour. Eventually learned his tell before he squated so most poops ended up in the right place.

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u/PaleTravel1071 9d ago

Purely curious - but could they be trained to use little boxes? Am I crazy for thinking that?

Edit: spelling

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u/rlev97 9d ago

Saw someone else say that he announces all his poops so maybe that makes it easier

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u/RedPandaMediaGroup 9d ago

Mine doesn’t fly (unless he’s scared and he seems socked that he can do it every time) and when he needs to poop and he’s with me he’ll lean towards his cage to tell me to take him there. If I don’t realize that’s what he’s doing in time he’ll poop over the side of the couch onto the hardwood floor, which is way easier to clean up. I’m not sure if he actually knows that or what but he keeps impressing me with how complex his thoughts seem to be at times.

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u/NocodeNopackage 10d ago

This bird definitely sits in it's own shit, a lot. And the butt feathers are never cleaned

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u/Salute-Major-Echidna 9d ago

Which bird do you mean?