Eating his poop?

[Owlet]

I've recently noticed Lincoln eating his own poop. Why would he be doing that? I supply him with fresh food and water daily and stimulation, I've recently been using toilet paper rolls to teach him how to forage. I am working on setting up a vet appointment for him though, so if something is wrong I can get it covered then too.

Edit: there is a grill between the bottom of the cage and him so it usually lands down on the newspaper but sometimes it lands on the grill bars and that's when he gets it. When I notice him at the bottom of the cage I do clean off the grill.

 

[plumsmum2005]

It can be a sign that a bird is short of some vitamins or minerals and is trying to claim them back but good you intend to see AV as this should be answered then.

 

[Owlet]

Thanks for the answer!

 

[plumsmum2005]

Perhaps it is worth just going through what you feed in terms of fresh foods, it is possible that one vitamin is being over fed at the expense of another. It isn't easy to get it right all the time especially if they are picky.

Link which I hope you find interesting, I did! http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww67eii.htm

 

[Owlet]

Yeah, Lincoln is relatively picky right now. His fresh food bowl contains; butternut squash, brocolli, yellow bell pepper, dragonfruit (white), oats, kiwi. He also has a peletted food but I'm working on switching that out because I was told it's a bad food. The vet suggested a different food last time I went but I forget what it was called so I'm going to ask him again when I take Lincoln in hopefully on Monday or Tuesday. I give him almonds and pecans as treats but I want to find different treats that he likes because I'm aware nuts aren't the healthiest so I can only give them in limitation making training limited to only a few times a day.

edit: Lincoln usually only eats the pelleted food for some reason :/ he likes the fresh food mix but he just rarely eats it. So I'm thinking of just giving limited pellets every day kind of forcing him to eat the fresh foods but I'm a gentle person and I don't like doing something like that??

 

[plumsmum2005]

Nuts are essential part of their diet, treats can be switched around, use different nuts not just the same one (walnuts, cashews) as well as pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, tiny pieces of plain unsalted cracker, sesame seeds, small pieces of fruit if they work as a motivator even a shard of grated low fat cheese. A chop can work with picky eaters in as much as you can hide ingredients in it.

 

[Loko]

My conure does this, or I thought so, but I have realized that its not eating but rather "cleaning", and since he doesnt have hands to scrape the poop of, he uses his beak. If he is actually swallowing it, then thats anpther story, but chances are hes just biting it off and ceunching it to clean it off his cage.

 

[Owlet]

No idea, I'll have to watch more closely next time.

 

[wrench13]

Dont know how old Lincoln is, but Salty went thru a phase when he was really young when he did this, like around 4-5 months. He stopped after a few weeks. he wasnt really eating it , he was playing with it

 

[Owlet]

Lincoln is 13

here I am again wishing I knew more about his background :'D

 

[SailBoat]

My conure does this, or I thought so, but I have realized that its not eating but rather "cleaning", and since he doesnt have hands to scrape the poop of, he uses his beak. If he is actually swallowing it, then thats anpther story, but chances are hes just biting it off and ceunching it to clean it off his cage.

That is a really interesting behavior, cleaning. I am assuming that this occurs in perching areas or areas that your conure moves past? I know that you are insightful, so if possible a bit more of what you have seen and you're understanding of it, please?

As covered by others, I have seen the eating of, which as stated is more commonly an an effort to obtain either minerals or Vits, that are either low or missing in their diet.

 

[EllenD]

I'm chiming in late here but I've been aware of a few pet birds that just started doing this out of nowhere, in adulthood. For some reason it's typically cockatiels that do this, but all parrots have this problem, and typically it is that they are lacking something in their diets, and in my experience it's usually Choline that they are lacking. In all cases I've heard that this was remedied pretty quickly by adding a pinch of brewer's yeast to their staple food that you know they're going to eat. Seems to work really well. If the brewer's yeast doesn't stop his behavior then you know it's not that, but as I said I know of at least 4 cases where that was the issue and the remedy.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[Billdore]

I got my palm oil that your vet had suggested for Lincoln. Haven't used it yet though. Any updates with Lincoln?

 

[Billdore]

Thanks Ellen I might give it a try I've onoly seen Timneh do this once so far. She likes to poop on papers outside of her house also so there usually isn't anythign to get into inside her little house.

 

[Owlet]

No update on Lincoln really. Got his blood test results back and everything was clear except they said he was low in 'phosphor' ?? They said it didn't really matter in birds but it could be brought up via almonds and leafy greens so as kale. He's still eating his poop on occasions but I think I just need to give it a bit more time.

 

[Sunnyclover]

I have a tip that worked for me with the fresh foods. Molly (sun conure) never at the fresh veggies when I gave them to her in a bowl and it made me so worried! I then tried putting them on a skewer toy that hangs in her cage and now she devours them with a passion! Hope this helps someone even if it's slightly off topic.

 

[Billdore]

great idea I'll give a parrot k-bob a try I haven't tried one of those yet. Thanks for the update on Lincoln glad everything was basically A OK.

 

[Syka]

I thought my Cockatiel Theon was eating his poop until I took a closer look. Turns out he just likes to break it off whatever its on and crush it - it leaves a nice dusty mess for me to clean lol (;-_-)