teaching skink to poo in a certain place

[Amicus]

Hello.


I would like to ask if anyone have succesfully teached a skink to defecate in a certain place?

I had a Green Iguana before and I've teached her, first, to poo in a concrete place and second, at the time I put her there saying "poo".
I own a four month old Tiliqua scincoides intermedia (Northern blue tounge).
It seemed easy, even automatic to teach iguana behaive like this... but the skink baby doesn't really seem to care of such matters.
Waiting for the clues from the blue tongue lizard owners.
I am conscious that I can just observe when the kid is "preparing" to pee/poo and quickly put it on its "toilet" but... want to read your suggestions.
Thank you in advance.

[Vengeance]

While I'm not saying it's impossible, I just can't picture it happening. One of my Blueys does his business on one side of the enclosure, usually in the far right hand corner. He's done this for as long as I can remember, there was no teaching involved. The other two, well one of them could not care any less if he/she was sitting in his/her own urates, while the other one generally defecates on the right hand side as well. When I take them outside the ball game changes, and they generally defecate whereever they might be at the time, be it on the back table or on the grass. I've become accustomed to some ques so I can avoid a mess at most times, but sometimes they just let it all out without much warning.

[donkeybuff]

Many skinks tend to go in the same place, but some go pretty much everywhere. I remember someone on a tegu forum who trained their tegu to go in a box lined with paper towels by putting some of the tegu's poop in the box. The tegu pooped in the box after that, even if there was no poop in it. Sounds kind of gross, but it may be worth a try?

[Amicus]

While I'm not saying it's impossible, I just can't picture it happening. One of my Blueys does his business on one side of the enclosure, usually in the far right hand corner. He's done this for as long as I can remember, there was no teaching involved. The other two, well one of them could not care any less if he/she was sitting in his/her own urates, while the other one generally defecates on the right hand side as well. When I take them outside the ball game changes, and they generally defecate whereever they might be at the time, be it on the back table or on the grass. I've become accustomed to some ques so I can avoid a mess at most times, but sometimes they just let it all out without much warning.

Indeed, that resembles a sudden storm.

[Amicus]

Many skinks tend to go in the same place, but some go pretty much everywhere. I remember someone on a tegu forum who trained their tegu to go in a box lined with paper towels by putting some of the tegu's poop in the box. The tegu pooped in the box after that, even if there was no poop in it. Sounds kind of gross, but it may be worth a try?

Thank you. Gross or not - that is a possibility!

[voxamoeba]

Alice will courteously poop in her food dish right after she eats, but makes up for that by tipping her water dish every freaking day without fail.

[Richard.C]

Ive taught mine to poop in there cages,well they have self taught themselves,lol,my lot drop where ever and when ever,and if u clean there cage out there garanteed to poop with in 5 mins of going back in,and usually skink footlongs,lol

[Lea]

Mine live outside and I've not taught them anything, although they tend to poop away from all living quarters such as hides and away from the food and water dish. I think it's an instinctual way of keeping things hygienic and clean, but not a conscious decision and there are still times when one will just go wherever they happen to be at the time- I've found remnants of poop on some shingleback heads, so I guess if they have got to go, they just do.

In that respect, I think toilet training by humans is hopeless and doomed to fail. Other things such as being able to relate certain noises to the food arriving, like the tapping of a fork on the food bowl, gets them all running as if I've "trained them", but again, I think it's an association of a noise with food, likened to the rustling a snail might make in the wild and not me training them to come when called or them thinking " the big human has delivered dinner again".

[saisaac]

I had a beardie that started only pooing in her water bowl which was a concern. I then transitioned her to pooing in a warm tub of water outside of her cage. When I was in college I wasn't dilligent with the warm water tub so she went back to pooing in one corner of the cage. When I tried to put a paper towel in that area she decided it was no longer the right area to poo.

Her habit was likely started from my efforts to get her to pass an impaction that she suffered from due to poor care at a pet store. I bathed her in warm water once a day for about a week or so until it eventually passed so perhaps she associated warm water with ease of passing a poo.

Chewy seems to prefer to poo in every part of his tank except his hides, food, and water.

[Amicus]

I wanted to inform that the defecating challenge ended up with a success!

He's still a young boy so accidents may occur but I am definitely proud of my son.

[Richard.C]

But have u toilet trained the skink,lol

[Scotts1au]

Teach it to do the Macarena and post on YouTube for us too.

[Amicus]

Teach it to do the Macarena and post on YouTube for us too.

Why am I deserving for condemnation for teaching a reptile rules of hygiene?
Indeed funny that is, the unlogical bias.

I do not judge you, Scott, for owning skinks that preffer to defecate all over the place but please, do not put verdicts on me for the fact of having my reptiles teached where to leave extrements.

[donkeybuff]

Could you tell us how you did it? I'm sure that if it worked for you, other members might like to try it out as well.

[Susann]

I would love to know as well, how you trained him, and what exactly it is he does when he poops now.

[Richard.C]

Id love to see an iguana that poops on command

Thats the ultimate party trick

[DianaBlueTongue]

Burrito is trained to only poo in a small water bowl ive always kept in his/her enclosure. And I mean that specific bowl. Over the last 17 years Burrito has changed enclosures a few times but no matter what cage he's in, he'll always poo in that bowl if it's in there with him. It took a loooong time to get him to do it regulairly but I did it because I was heading off to college and Burrito was staying home with my mom and figured it would be easier for her to clean if I could get him to always "go" in the same place. I still have that bowl to this day, ill snap a pic if you like If kinda funny to watch him go in his "toilet".

[Susann]

I'd still love to hear how the training is done, and what exactly it is that your skink does when it needs to go.

[Amicus]

In the case of iguana - after defaecation she would experience something very pleasant which was going outside for an entire day but if she wouldn't poo, she would stay at home which is obviously not so attractive option. I've always told Ivy to poo in the cuvette before we would be going outside and she have done that, for the perspective of an adventure that awaits behind the walls of the house was very motivating.


Teaching a skink - hmm, that was very automatic.
I've used a typical reptile behaviour of wiping the cloaca after defecating.
Amicus explores the room for hours a day, I have put a medical wax-cloth:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/imag ... maQqIiDJWA
and he knew what was the purpose of it. I have not put any extrements on it, it was a clean material. Now whenever he is in that physiological need, he just directly runs to the wax-cloth. I always wash my reptiles after pooing.
Skink is having a need to poo/pee/leave a sperm plug + runs to the skink toilet = skink being washed.
That is the routine.
My explanation emanates with the word "just" but it is how it occured.. just...
I suggest using the behaviour of an animal for your own needs. If what worked for Amicus won't happen to be effective in a case of your tiliqua, perhaps, you can observe and when noticing the characteristic tension of the body that happens right before the lizard defecates, you can quickly move it the the place you want the skink to use as a toilet.


Most of all, a close contact with a reptile is utterly needed, otherwise you can be a cause of a stress for the animal and the will of achieving concrete behaviour won't turn into reality. When the bond is build, one shall make other steps like teaching various actions.

[DianaBlueTongue]

The way I taught Burrito was just lots and lots and lots of repetition. I started with waiting for him to poo (he always pood in the morning) and then placing the poo in the little bowl and leaving it there till right before bed. When I could, I'd quickly put his bum over the bowl if it looked like he was going to poo but obviously couldn't get to him everytime he pottied so id just put the poo in the bowl like I said to let him see/smell it there. I almost gave up many times but I'd heard of someone training a tegu that way and it taking a while so stuck with it. Took about a year for him to start seeking out the bowl when it was potty time. And he would only sporadically do it at first on his own but slowly but surely over the years came to use it entirely, unless I took it out of his cage. He's look around for it and then just go where the bowl was last.