change in urine color! please lend any advice, vet closed till monday!

[ParrotBoyK417]

Hello, I’ve recently been given a family member’s near-20 year old cuban amazon parrot due to their previous owner getting too old to take care of them anymore.

Around yesterday morning, i noticed her droppings looked a bit different compared to previous days. The feces themselves were a mix of green and brownish (she’s eating a mix of seeds and pellets while im trying to get her to eat veggies and fruits), the urates were a normal white color, but the paper towels at the bottom of her cage were soaking a weird green color different than the usual color. Later that day, another one of her droppings had soaked the paper towels to a brown-ish tint. The brown color continued today with her first morning poop. I will attach some pictures, although the pictures don’t quite capture the colors correctly.

She hasn’t had any changes in behavior or appetite. No signs of lethargy, not refusing to eat, not singing and whistling any less than usual, still drinking her usual amount of water, still preening just the same.

I did buy her food from a different brand, as her previous food had a salmonella recall. This new brand does have more colored bits than her previous one, but such a rapid change in color has me extremely concerned.

note: that is not undigested food in her droppings, that’s from her eating right over where she pooped

please give me any advice or suggestions as I can’t take her to the vet until monday, thank you

 

[DonnaBudgie]

I would get her in as soon as you can but it ay very well be a dietary thing, even the reddish brown liquid. I fed a baby budgie a hand feeding formula that turned her liquid part reddish. Vet looked at her poos underca microscope and said it wasn't blood. Some ingredient in the food did it.

 

[ParrotBoyK417]

I would get her in as soon as you can but it ay very well be a dietary thing, even the reddish brown liquid. I fed a baby budgie a hand feeding formula that turned her liquid part reddish. Vet looked at her poos underca microscope and said it wasn't blood. Some ingredient in the food did it.

i’ll absolutely be taking her as soon as possible

 

[JjEjFjF]

When you say new food, do you mean pellets?

 

[ParrotBoyK417]

currently she’s eating a different brand of seeds, but i ordered 2 brands of pellets as well to see which she prefers

 

[JjEjFjF]

Are the droppings fresh or were they sitting on the paper towel for a while?

 

[ParrotBoyK417]

They’ve been there for a while. I put that paper towel in her sleeping cage last night, the other image was a dropping from yesterday afternoon.

Her morning poop and her 2 most recent droppings had a similar color soaking into the paper towel, but with much less volume

 

[DonnaBudgie]

What makes me think it's the food is what you said about how rapidly it changed color. Birds digest very quickly and color changes can happen overnight like it did with my baby budgie.

 

[ParrotBoyK417]

What makes me think it's the food is what you said about how rapidly it changed color. Birds digest very quickly and color changes can happen overnight like it did with my baby budgie.

i hope that’s the case, i’ll keep monitoring any changes until i’m able to take her to the vet, thank you!

 

[TiredOldMan]

Most likely just a change in diet. However if she hasn't been seen by an AVIAN vet since coming into your care I would err on the side of caution. The reason I stress avian vet is that your average vet knows next to nothing when it comes to birds.

 

[JjEjFjF]

They’ve been there for a while. I put that paper towel in her sleeping cage last night, the other image was a dropping from yesterday afternoon.

Her morning poop and her 2 most recent droppings had a similar color soaking into the paper towel, but with much less volume

I use printer paper in my bird cages. The feces in the poop leches out into paper towels too easily.