Why is my Senegal eating poop?

[Emily15]

Hi! My name is Emily, and I own 2 Senegal parrots named Senegal (I know, super original) and Whitney.

My bird Whitney has recently been doing some weird things. The first of which is eating his poop. Sometimes it is the poop that has been dried and crusted. Other times, he has just gone, turns around, takes a bite, and then shakes his head like when he eats something he doesn't like the consistency of. I looked this up online. What I found said that it could be a lack of vitamins. Is this true? If so, what vitamins could he be missing? and what foods can I feed him to replenish these vitamins.

Whitney also does something else that bothers me. When my parrots have to poop, they will take a step back and fluff their feathers in a certain way. Sometimes Whitney does this, but it seems to take him longer than usual before anything comes out. Whenever I notice this, I usually try to give Whitney an extra piece of fruit. My mom always said fruit helps with constipation; I'm assuming this helps with birds, as well.

Even all this is happening to Whitney, Senegal seems perfectly healthy.

Thanks in advance for any advice someone can give me, but here are some things you may need to know before helping me. I live in a third world country, so there is no avian vet. I feed my birds seed and sometimes fruits, vegetables, peanuts, and cashews; not special bird pellets. I hope that was helpful.

 

[Emily15]

Sorry, if I seem too frank or anything. I really don't know a better way to talk abut my bird pooping.

 

[wrench13]

A good diet is essential to good health of parrots. you want to reduce the seed intake slowly so the 40-50% is veggies, 20% fruits andthe rest seeds and nuts. Remove the peanuts, as there are many documented cases of peanuts harboring deadly spores, and they are not realy good for them, even shelled. Even in Africa, pelleted parrot food can be bought in bulk, and that is what the balance should be. eating poop, dried or otherwise is not good for them and you need too clean it up before Senegal gets a chance to eat any.

 

[Laurasea]

Peanuts can easily have fungus on them, do most of us don't feed those. You can feed scrambled eggs on occasion, and small amounts of cooked chicken, or boiled egg with shell, they can eat the shell for added calcium.
You can offer cuttlebone and mineral block.
I have heard of other animals, not birds, eating poop when they have done sort of deficiency in minerals or vitamins.
If the bird is picking at the vent area it could be a yeast or bacterial, or parasite issue.
I would offer yogurt with live culture and low or no added sugar, a small amount like the size of your thumb once a week, to get probiotics into the birds. Or you can buy probiotics made for birds. Probiotics were recommended to me on this site. They helped my bird get over a yeast overgrowth problem. I now feed all my birds probiotic. Just don't add them to the water, never add anything to a birds water. If you buy the bird kind sprinkle on food.

 

[EllenD]

It absolutely can be due to a malnutrition or undernourished situation, but it can also be just a behavioral thing...It can also indicate that you're not cleaning their cage often enough for them.

The first thing I'd ask you is what is their regular, daily diet? And how often do you clean their cage/cages out and replace the paper in the bottom? That might give us some answers...

As far as the tail)feather movement just before they poop, that is probably completely normal. I can absolutely tell right before my Senegal poops, as I trained him to fly to the play-gym or his T-Stand to poop whenever he's out of his cage, and that's how I'd know he was going to go, when I'd place him on his gym or stand he'd immediately start moving his tail and he'd go...So that's probably normal for your bird...Only when poop sticks to their tails/feathers around their vents is there an indication that something is wrong health-wise, such as Fatty-Liver Disease or Sternal-Lift.

You need to look at your bird's actual droppings to see if they are possibly dehydrated or if they might have loose, runny feces due to an infection or illness. If their droppings are extremely hard, sticky, or the Urates (white part) are chalky, then they may be dehydrated. If they ever "strain" to poop, then you're looking at a more serious issue than constipation with birds (usually), such as a bowel obstruction/blockage, egg-binding in females, etc.

 

[EllenD]

I just read your diet information, and since you don't have access to a commercial parrot pellet as their staple diet, you need to be very careful with feeding them a staple-diet that includes ANY fatty seeds, such as Sunflower Seeds, which are extremely fatty and only an occasional treat, any Nuts at all due to their high fat content, especially Peanuts, which should be avoided completely, and any dried corn at all...If a seed-mix is going to be their staple-diet instead of a pellet that's fine, but for a pet/captive parrot who doesn't fly 10 miles a day or get much exercise it must be a mix of healthier, lower-fat seeds, grains, and legumes, and not one that contains ANY Sunflower Seeds and also not much millet...

Nuts should only be occasional treats and not a part of their regular diet, nor should any dried corn at all...And Nuts used as occasional treats should not ever be Peanuts, they are too fatty, contain little nutrition, and as Laura said they carry Fungus and certain Molds...So stick to other types of nuts, but only one or two at a time daily as treats.

You need to make fresh veggies a much larger part of your bird's diet, as they are not getting the vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc. that they need every day. Most of what they have been eating is simply calories, fat, carbs, and protein, and in captive parrots this will always lead to an enlarged, fatty liver...This could very well be why they are eating their droppings, and could also be why they are having trouble pooping without moving their tailfeathers around...The larger their liver gets, the more lifted their Keel-Bone gets, called "Sternal Lift", and this causes a shifting in the location of all of their abdominal organs, which causes them to poop on themselves. This is often the reason why pet birds have to shift around to poop, because their Cloacas, Intestines, etc. are not sitting in the proper places and they have to adjust for this or they'll constantly poop on their feathers...The only way to correct this is to cut the high-fat out of their diets, which will gradually eliminate the fat from their livers, and gradually the Sternal-Lift will be eliminated, causing their organs to eventually shift back to their correct positions.

 

[Emily15]

Ok. Thanks for the much-needed advice. I probably have been giving them too many seeds, so I will try more veggies and some fruit. I will also try the yogurt.
To tell you the truth, when I first got my birds, I didn't clean their cage as often as I should have. I am now doing better and cleaning the cage more often.
Another thing I meant to mention was that I have no clue what the gender of my Senegals are. Everything I saw online says that you can only tell the gender of Senegal parrots by running some kind of DNA or blood test. Since there is no avian vet, I really doubt there is anywhere to run a blood test on birds. All that to say, could it be possible that Whitney is a female and is expecting???

 

[Emily15]

Wow! ok. I didn't realize how those things could affect them so much. Thanks.

 

[EllenD]

Ok. Thanks for the much-needed advice. I probably have been giving them too many seeds, so I will try more veggies and some fruit. I will also try the yogurt.
To tell you the truth, when I first got my birds, I didn't clean their cage as often as I should have. I am now doing better and cleaning the cage more often.
Another thing I meant to mention was that I have no clue what the gender of my Senegals are. Everything I saw online says that you can only tell the gender of Senegal parrots by running some kind of DNA or blood test. Since there is no avian vet, I really doubt there is anywhere to run a blood test on birds. All that to say, could it be possible that Whitney is a female and is expecting???

There is no definative way to tell the gender of a Senegal Parrot other than a DNA test, either by blood or by feathers...Do your Senegals live in the same cage together? Are they bonded? Has she ever laid an egg before? Do you see them mating?

It's possible that she may have an egg, but typically when a female has an egg in her Oviduct, their droppings become massive and sloppy. So if her droppings suddenly become huge and very sloppy, then that's a sure sign that she's got an egg she's going to lay...

***As far as you not having an Avian Vet anywhere near you, that's a scary situation. Do you know where the closest Certified Avian Vet or Avian Specialist Vet is to you? That's something that you need to find out for the future, you never know when you're going to have an emergency, especially if you have a female bird...Egg-Binding is 100% fatal without medical intervention, so that's something that you need to know...There is a really good tool on here for finding the closest Avian Specialist Vets to you, and it's a world-wide tool. I'll see if I can find the link for you so you can check it out...

***As far as getting them both DNA-tested, I highly suggest that you do it, because you definitely need to know if either of them are females, so that you're prepared for eggs, whether they are fertile or infertile. It's quite common for female parrots to lay infertile eggs during breeding-season, just like human women get their menstrual periods, it's basically the same thing. So your birds don't have to be mating for her to start laying eggs, or for her to become egg-bound...I'd recommend making sure that they both have access all the time to a Cuttlebone and an Avian Mineral Block, both of which you can find in any pet shops. One of the main causes of egg-binding is the female not getting enough calcium, and when a female is on a seed-mix as their staple diet instead of pellets, then it's quite possible that she's Calcium and Phophorous deficient, so having both a Cuttlebone and a Mineral Block in their cage(s) at all times will help her to have normal levels...

***By the way, you can actually order DNA-testing kits online from several different laboratories and Avian Testing Organizations, and they use chest-feathers instead of blood. So you order the test-kit, and it comes with a little baggie and a ready-to-mail envelope...Then you just pluck a couple little feathers quickly from your bird's chest/belly area, put them in the baggie, and mail them back...You'll have your answer in a week or two...And they typically only cost between $20-$30 this way, in contrast to the up to $100 an Avian Vet will cost because you have to pay for an office visit and then also the blood-draw and the laboratory fees. So if you just do a Google Search for "Parrot DNA Gender Testing", you'll get a bunch of links to reputable labs that you can order a kit from...You could probably order 2 kits and get both your birds tested for under $60 this way...But they do have to be freshly-plucked feathers, you can't put feathers that are laying in their cages in to be tested, that won't work...There are also kits where you clip a toenail and allow a drop of blood to fall onto a little card they send you, and then you just use Qwik-Stop powder or Corn Starch on the toenail to stop it bleeding. That's the other option...

 

[ChristaNL]

As long as you can send/ receive mail getting a DNAtest done is easy, you send them some freshly plucked (chest)feathers and they go to work.