Bad habit

[Rachel.quaker]

Hey everyone,
So my 7 month Quaker has picked up the nasty habit of eating his own dried up poop off the bars of his cage I obviously clean his cage on a regular basis but it's impossible to keep it spotless, is this dangerous for him? Does anyone know why he's doing it? Or how to make him stop? Please help

 

[Violet_Diva]

This isn't something I have personally witnessed, but I have read about others having this problem.

Firstly, are you sure it's being eaten or is it just being chewed?

It might possibly indicate a nutritional deficiency of some kind, might be lacking calcium... What is their current diet?

If diet isn't the culprit, it might just be a behavioural issue. In that case it's a matter of trying to best work out a strategy for training this behaviour out of them!

I did however find this old thread:

http://www.parrotforums.com/questions-answers/15542-eating-her-poop.html

And this one has further links in it:

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/49331-almost-7-week-old-eating-its-poop.html

I'm sorry I personally have no immediate answers for you. Hopefully someone else with firsthand experience of this will be able to advise. In the meantime, the above threads might be helpful to you.

 

[Anansi]

As Violet_Diva pointed out, you want to determine whether the droppings are indeed being eaten or merely chewed. He may simply be performing some housekeeping, as some birds are quite fastidious about their surroundings. I know that if I don't attend to her droppings swiftly enough for her liking, Maya will remove the offending fecal matter herself. It's quite the incentive to stay on top of the daily cage cleaning. Lol!

If, however, he actually is eating the droppings, I think the 2nd link Violet_Diva provided is the best one for you to check out. And if you haven't taken him in for a checkup by an avian vet, now might be a good time. You can find out if there are any nutritional deficiencies, and even if all is well you'll at least have established his healthy baseline.