Understanding your bird's droppings could save your bird's life. It is true that when a bird becomes sick that their health can deteriorate quickly. But it's rarely true that when a bird becomes sick, it dies suddenly without showing symptoms of illness. The symptoms are there; we just have to learn how to recognize them.
Changes in the droppings can be a very early indicator that the bird is sick. Know what normal droppings look like so you can recognize a change in color, consistency, order, and/or amount. Use paper at the bottom of the cage so that the dropping falls flat and clean onto the
paper. This will enable you to recognize any changes in color, consistency, order, and/or amount. If you are able to notice this change you could save your bird's life.
Wood shavings, kitty litter and the sorts should not be used at the bottom of your cage. Kitty litter is dusty and the dust is produces is bad for parrots. But, most importantly using these products could case you to miss a change in color and consistency in the droppings.
Using kitty litter or wood shavings might make for easier clean up for you' but, it interferes with evaluating the droppings for signs of health problems.
There are three components to most droppings.
- Urine consists of crystal urine called urates (white chalky material)
- non-crystal urine called urine (clear water).
- feces, which comes from the colon and consists of digested food.
Sometimes the 2 types of urine are mixed creating cloudy white urine. Important changes include color changes and amount:
- Green or Yellow Urates /Liver Disease, Anorexia
- Brown or Chocolate Urates/ Lead Poisoning
- Red Urine or Urates/ Internal Bleeding
- Increased Urates/ Dehydration
- Increased Urine Disease/ Eating food high in water and drinking a
- lot .
The color of the feces varies depending on the types of food eaten. Red pellets and strawberries produce a red colored dropping. (This does not apply to the urine.) Blueberries and blackberries produce black droppings.The feces should be solid and tubular like a worm. It can be coiled up or uncoiled and it is okay if it is broken into pieces.
Diarrhea is not excessive urine in the droppings. Diarrhea is the fecal material not
holding its tubular shape. Instead it is the consistency of pudding.
If the feces are fresh and black in color and there were no blueberries in the diet then this indicates melena. Melena is black droppings caused by bleeding high up in the digestive system. When the blood passes through the lower digestive system, it is digested turning the red blood into a black tarry color, staining the feces black. Your veterinarian should investigate color that cannot be explained by the diet.
Watch your bird's droppings everyday and learn what they look like normally. When you notice a change, identify what portion of the dropping has changed. If you cannot explain the change by the bird's lifestyle then act immediately and contact your avian veterinarian.
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