Poop!

beccafigs · Post by **beccafigs** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:50 am

I switched my zebra finches to pellets this week. I had tried switching gradually but they would fling the pellets all over the bottom of the cage and only eat the seeds, so now they just have pellets and oyster shell, with fresh food here and there. The thing I'm noticing, and this may be perfectly normal and I just don't realize it, is that their poop is more solid (I see little to no visible urate) and it's a sort of a yellow color. It will leave a little wet spot on the newspaper, but it is just kind of a pile... I am not too worried, but I was wondering if anyone else has seen this happen when they switched food.

rottielover · Post by **rottielover** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:26 pm

Sounds normal to me, less moisture in the food the firmer the droppings. (Seeds actually do have a mositure content too them, pellet's have some moisture in them also, but are "dryer" than seeds).

Depending on the pellet's your feeding the color could be from that.

I've got a Gouldian that for some reason will only eat the green and yellow colored pellets (ignores the red and orage) and his droppings are greenish/yellowish. His mate eats more of the red and orange pellets and her droppings are that color, it's kind of funny to look at the paper on the bottom, you can tell which bird likes to sit in certain spots in the cage.

I have another pair of Gouldians that refuse to eat the red pellet's but eat all the other colors. I've spoken to Zupreem and another breeder, and they assure me that there is no differance in the "taste" of the pellets, they are all made from the same raw materials, they just have a little food coloring in them to make them more "interesting" to the birds.

I've seen this with the hookbills alot on pellets, they seem to prefere a certain color (individial based on the bird).

Hope that helps!

beccafigs · Post by **beccafigs** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 12:50 pm

Thanks for the response. I'm reassured to hear that's normal. I'm just a new bird mom and I want to make sure I'm doing things right. Now that I think of it, I have Lafeber's pellets and their poop is pretty similar in color. That's too funny about your birds' preference for different colors, and the different colored poop.