Potty Trained Pooper???

[Karikat]

So my bearded dragon is about 3 to 4 months old I am guessing and has recently started doing something that puzzles me. He seems to have decided that he wants to be potty/litter box trained. The only problem is his area of choice....his food dish....or his water dish once it is empty... :bleick: ...lol he's been doing this for about a week and a half now and I'm not sure how to break the habit....his desire to be potty trained is great but having to repeatedly scrub the results out of his dishes isn't really something I enjoy doing I've tried removing his dishes after feedings to discourage him from doing this but then he waits until the next feeding and repeats the behaviour the minute the dish hits his viv he can be so stubborn and frustrating sometimes!!! lol XD So what I'm wondering is if anyone else has had this interesting problem or if anyone has any other suggestions as to how to un-potty train him :dontknow any advise would be real nice!

 

[sirenique]

The easiest thing I can think of is to keep another dish in rotation in his viv and hopes that he starts avoiding the water/food dishes totally. I know this might sound a bit strange, but I worked on some potty training methods with Bones because he kept pooping on his fake tree and it was getting obnoxious to clean up daily. I came home from work and took his dried poo he left me that day on his tree, and put it on his slate in the corner of his viv where he is not very active. Then I placed him next to his poop so he would know it is there. I would leave it there for an hour or so, then I would remove the poop and clean his cage while I let him run around my apartment. I did this for a week or so, and believe it or not, he started pooping near the corner on the slate! He's not perfect and he'll still poop on other slate tiles every now and then, but the fact that he's not pooping on his basking tree is a big relief to me.

Again, this is just my speculation and not a guarantee, but I also noticed my beardie likes to poop in very warm spots, if not his basking spot. It might be worth it to try some cage rearranging and see if he really is just loving having a poop bowl, or if he is just liking the hot/cold side of the cage to poop on. XD I say do a little experimenting and see what you can get him to do. The earlier you start, the better chance I feel you have to 'train' him before he becomes and angsty adolescent and dose whatever the heck he wants haha!!

How to train your dragon, indeed! 8) Good luck, and let us know if you find anything interesting if you do some experimenting!

 

[Cheline101]

I bought this sweet basking rock/hide-away for $50.00 and put it in his tank... the only time he goes inside it is when he's chasing a cricket, and the top is his designated poop spot! yeah... $50.00 poop rock! I personally decided it's more sanitary for him to poop on the rock than in the sand because I can go rinse the rock off really easy and put it back... I can scoop the sand, but it doesn't really clean it that much... I'm still pissed that I spent that much for a rock that he poops on, but I've accepted it. lol It's easier this way I guess... Good luck with your training... I think I would just buy another dish for food and let him poop in the one he's pooping in... I would think It wouldn't be healthy for him to poop in the same bowl he eats out of... :|

 

[ziggy23]

Like the other poster said, it might just be wanting to go on that side. Both of my dragons prefer going on the cool side.

I think I trained mine to stop going on the furniture by taking it away for a while, like a few hours or the rest of the day. I would wash and sterilize it each time they did it. It's been a while but I'm thinking within a month give or take then they stopped.

I'm not quite sure how that would work for food dishes. . . Maybe making him go without salad for an hour after he does it, might work if he likes salads and your schedule permits it. he's probably doing it because you clean it up quickly. Maybe if your show him an alternative, like a spare water dish, a paper towel, etc. Warm baths also encourage bm's, if he has a schedule then you can try and time it right for a while. Or maybe if you go the opposite route and don't clean it up immediately. Getting to the back of my tank is a pain, and I admit I wasn't always quick about cleaning it up if they went back there. After a while they stopped pooping in the back.

 

[Lisafosc]

What a topic lmao!
But what the heck, I have to join in! Both of mine go where ever, when ever so no hope for me training ours! Although one of em often goes at the front of the viv whilst we have the door open feeding him! He likes to look you in the eye whilst he's in action :lol:

 

[everhood13]

One of mine will hold it until either she gets a bath or can't apparently hold it any more. She poos about every two days regardless, but will poo every day, twice a day if I put her in a bath every day. I'm totally serious. I can bathe her, she poops, I drain and refill the bath and put her back in, then she poos again. It really is odd. The second one is usually just a bit of urate. Weird how they develop their little habits, huh? :lol:

 

[Karikat]

Thanks so much for all the advice I will be sure to try out each method if one doesn't work lol I'm eager to break him of this.....interesting habit :roll:

 

[BeardieGrandma]

Since your pooper is pooping in the same bowl, i'd just convert that bowl to the pooping bowl and get a new bowl to feed in...makes it nice that they go in the same place and it's not on furniture or substrate per se...

Ours likes to poop in same spot, so we put down a paper towel on the spot. We got about a 75% accuracy rate these days of getting her to actually go on the paper towel, otherwise we get her in the bathtub and take care of it there. So much easier to keep the tank clean when you get a 'system' down.

 

[Karikat]

Yay! Results at last! I tried just putting an extra bowl in and Bob seems to have decided that it is satisfactory and has been using the new one instead of his food dish much happier now that he`s done trying to go where he eats thanks everyone so much for the help ^.^

 

[Lisafosc]

Woop woop, congrats! Well done Bob it seems u actually trained your human into understanding beardie talk lol, hope you enjoy ur food now you have your very own toilet ha ha x

 

[Slave2Scarlett]

Scarlett poops everyday in the same spot.. The funny thing is... She uses her bowl as leverage..lol she will sit on the edge of the bowl and it always lands in the same place on the viv floor.. She has it down to an art i think.. ha ha

 

[ziggy23]

YAY glad it worked for you.

 

[JenFid]

Oh man, sadly Sarth's favorite spot about 85% of the time is on his hammock! :bleick: Washing that thing is annoying. He's starting going in his baths though, hopefully soon that'll be the only place he goes, lol.

 

[ziggy23]

Oh man, sadly Sarth's favorite spot about 85% of the time is on his hammock! :bleick: Washing that thing is annoying. He's starting going in his baths though, hopefully soon that'll be the only place he goes, lol.

Don't be in a hurry to take it out. Then when you do, take it away for an extended period of time. Stick it in the washer or soak it in the sink, and let it LINE dry. And don't be in a hurry to put it back in. Keep it all day, even 2 days. Most animals do not want soiled homes. They want clean homes with minimal inconvenience to THEM. If they are losing something that's important to them for long periods of time, they'll wise up after a while. It might take several times, even a few weeks. But it will happen. They're smart enough to put the pieces together.

 

[JenFid]

I will have to try this. He hasn't pooed on it since the last time I cleaned it last week, so that's a good sign as he used to do it about 2-3x a week.