Uh, oh, that poop doesn't look right!

[Z28Taxman]

Got home today and Ditto is his normal chirpy self. I opened the cage and he came out and pooped on the floor so I cleaned it up. Looked ok at first but when smooshed it looked black. :omg: Consistancy was normal although it looked like it had a bit of leafy stuff in it. Ok look for poops in cage, they look normal greenish color. Found fresh one under where he was sitting when I came home and smooshed it into the paper, black. Look under bright white light and it's more of a dark brown when it thins out, not black. Ok now what could he have eaten that would do that (I'm hoping it's not blood). I haven't changed his diet. Look in the food bowl, ate a normal amount. check the pellet bowl, there are bits of dried peppers (red and green) and other dried fruit bits in there and all the dried fruit bits have been dug up and are on top with beak marks in them.

Look under the pellet bowl and I see signs that he's been eating those dried fruits. Quite a bit from the looks of it.

He standing on my shoulder getting impatient for his dinner so we got his veggies ready, refilled his water and got the avi-cakes and nutriberries. He followed the bowl back into the cage like normal and ate and is now playing up a storm.

Found a new poop under the water dish and it was back to green with just a bit of the dark stuff at the end.

I hope it's just from dried stuff he apparantly ate today.

Guess I'll be on poop patrol for awhile again.

[Z28Taxman]

Ok, he just pooped again and this one initially looked dark, not as dark as the last 2 but darker, so I examined it and it was actually brown and had bits of what appered to be eaither apple skin (the pellet mix has dried apples) or peppers and it was well digested and was more of a brownish color and not black so hopefully he's back to normal again soon and it's just from what he ate today. There were also 2 very tiny seeds (not unsual) and they were also green (well what was left of them).

[Elle]

I hope it's nothing serious. I got a Hans Macaw 10 days ago and switched him on the same diet as everyone else. His poop is quite different than my 5 other birds so I am guessing it might take a while to change. It made me wonder is it possible that what you are seing in his poop is from something he ate a few days ago? Look at his toys too and the paint on the cage to make sure he isn't eating anything that might not be digestable.

I hope he'll be all right.

[Z28Taxman]

I hope it's nothing serious. I got a Hans Macaw 10 days ago and switched him on the same diet as everyone else. His poop is quite different than my 5 other birds so I am guessing it might take a while to change. It made me wonder is it possible that what you are seing in his poop is from something he ate a few days ago? Look at his toys too and the paint on the cage to make sure he isn't eating anything that might not be digestable.

I hope he'll be all right.

Well after that the poops were amber and green (a few seeds but that happens occasionally). Then he had his late afternoon/early evening all water poops (he drinks a good bit of water after I put his food and fresh water in). Then one normal one with a bit of water after that. I hope to see a few normal ones when we go to the couch to watch tv in a few minutes. He's acting perfectly normal, eating, chirping, playing and preening.

Now that I've calmed down I remember him doing the dark poops before and they go right back to normal. I think it's the fruit bits that do it. And there were a lot of half eaten dried fruit bits in the pellet bowl and on the bottomo of the cage. There were also some fruit nutriberries in his regular food bowl too.

I think he purposly tries to eat a lot of something to make his poops look strange to make me panic!:rotfl

Usually I can tell what he ate by the color of the poops.

Green=lots of seeds and veggies.
Beige=pellets from the veggie nutriberries
Amber=avicakes

I just haven't figured out quite what would make it the color of a chewed up oreo cookie mixed in water to form a paste like it was today.

After a closer examination of the pellet bowl now that he's had his fill and is busy playing and chirping at me, along with all the half eaten dried fruit and pepper bits, there's a disinct lack of red pellets in there. A few crumb of red pellets at the bottom but almost all of the red pellets are gone. There were plenty in there the other day so he must have decided the red ones taste better today and ate them. There are dried red peppers in there too and they're a very dark reddish brown color.

[Z28Taxman]

Right after I posted my previous message I went to the cage and he pooped. It was normal. :happy:

And when we were watching tv and getting his head scritched he pooped again. Also perfectly normal! :happy::happy:

Must have just been something he ate to only have 2 odd colored poops then go back to normal.

[Z28Taxman]

Today seems to be better. No dark scary looking poops. When I uncovered him at 5:45 this morning he was already awake and peeking at me from the happy hut. He came out and snuck out the door for his water dish while I was refilling it and yelled at me for stealing his water. :lol

Then he played for 15 minutes and had a pellet snack and ate some nutriberries. Did one poop that was normal green and 2 overnight poops looked normal too. The one he did when I came out had some seeds but it's tough to tell if they were in the poop or already there since it was right under the food dish.

When I got home I found a fresh one that had one or two seeds but again it was on the bottom of the cage and since he tends to hop around the whole cage while eating, can't tell what was in the poop or what was already there. The ones that didn't fall to the floor looked good.

He seems to be his normal self so hopefully he just ate something yesterday that turned his poops dark and maybe upset him a bit.

I can see that he also ate plenty of pellets today, most of the yellow ones are also gone now.

[thebubbleking]

You know dave if you get bored or REALY want to get into poopology i can send you one of my bowel movements! :lol

[Z28Taxman]

You know dave if you get bored or REALY want to get into poopology i can send you one of my bowel movements! :lol

You're gonna need your own doctor for that!:x :lol

[Elle]

How would Ditto react of you served him only red pellets one day? That could answer the mystery once and for all?

[Z28Taxman]

How would Ditto react of you served him only red pellets one day? That could answer the mystery once and for all?

He probably wouldn't eat much. Pellets are normally just snaks, he'd be screaming for his avi-cakes and nutriberries and pitching a fit.

[michael]

The chewed up Oreo cookie does seem a bit difficult to explain, however, seeing how Ditto has ventured out of his normal eating patterns on occasion, I wonder if he consumed something new, that when mixed with other food pigments, it produced the elusive black stool? .... Talk about a mystery bird. Ditto! ...........:)

[Z28Taxman]

Mystery bird is right. He has changed his eating habits again, he does it every few weeks. He had been eating the veggie and fruit nutriberries like crazy and nibbling on avi-cakes. This week he started going after the avicakes again like a mad bird that eating the dried peppers from the pellets and his eating more of the red pellets in one day might explain it. It could potentially explain the increased number of the large seeds from the avicakes in his poops. He normally will poop those occasionally but since the dark poops there have been a lot of them except for today since I didn't give him avicakes this morning. his poops have been perfect all day today.

The dark poops weren't actually black but a very dark brown. It became brown when spread very thinly on the paper and as it dried it got lighter. He hasn't done that since thursday and there were only 2. He went back to the normal greenish ones within an hour.

What was it? I don't know, I have seen dark ones before but not quite that large or dark. I wich he could tell me what he ate so I'd know.

I'm still a bit concerned that he's not quite right. There were times when he had seeds in his poops again and today he took his afternoon nap in the happy hut. That's something he almost never does unless he's sick.

Once I opened his cage however he came out and we hung out for a bit before he went back in to eat.

I have a feeling we may be making a trip to the vet on Monday. It wouldn't surprise me that he's just faking the whole thing so I take him in. He loves vet visits.

[Z28Taxman]

Well whatever it was he hasn't done it again. I think he likes to keep me guessing.

[linda040899]

Keeping my fingers crossed that everything's gonna be OK.......

[Z28Taxman]

Keeping my fingers crossed that everything's gonna be OK.......

That makes 2 of us. My vet dialing finger is on a hair trigger.

[Z28Taxman]

Well I have no idea what combination of stuff he eats to make dark brown poops but after almost 2 months he's been perfect. Poops are usually green to light brown and he's his normal chirpy self.

Just occasionally he'll do the darker brown ones. I wish he could keep a list of what he eats so I knew what it is. :rotfl

He's also eating great so as long as he feels good and eats good I guess I don't care if his poops change color (witin reason).