Poopy bird.

beccafigs · Post by **beccafigs** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:25 pm

All of my zebras are going through a HARD molt right now, and one of the girls got loose the other day (there was a gap in the temp cage they are in until the new one is done) and she had a rather bald butt and a little poo on her feathers. My husband and I cleaned her up and just assumed that maybe it was the fact that she had a bald butt that made her have a bit of poo on her. I guess it was silly but I'm still a sort of new bird owner. I was just looking at her from outside the cage and she has a very poopy butt right now and her poop looks a bit green. They have a somewhat varied diet; egg food, seed, dried greens, and pellets. Should I treat for worms? My apartment is kind of a mess since I had to take everything off the balcony for them to take their sweet time painting the building, and I can't get at the extra cages in the storage shed just yet, so I can't separate her for at least a couple days. I'm so worried, my husband wasn't very interested in the birds until he picked out this one, Pepper is HIS girl and I don't want anything to happen to her RIGHT before he goes to back to Iraq. Or worse yet, while he's there. He'd be so disappointed, and then I'm sure he won't take much of an interest if his little girl dies on him. I tried to find a related post but I didn't see one. If someone can point me in the right direction if I missed something I would be happy to see it.

Post by **Hilary** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:39 pm

The green color could be the pellets (depending on what you're using) or the dried greens. She shouldn't have a poopy butt, though. Can you put a heat lamp on the cage since you can't separate her?

beccafigs · Post by **beccafigs** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:12 pm

Yeah I can do that. She's not puffy at all though. She seems normal other than poop all over her butt.

Any tips on cleaning it well? Last time there was so little I just took a Q-tip to it, but this is a real (crusty) mess. I was thinking that my husband would hold her on her back like last time, and I would wipe her up with a warm washcloth? The other birds usually have yellow poop (unless they hit the seed hard), and hers is pretty bright green. She might be favoring the green bits in the dried egg food they have right now, I suppose. I did stick my hand in the cage to get her to move and get a good look at her (which made her jump on one of the boys' heads and she pooped on the other girl as she flew away

) and when she flew away she got winded faster than the other birds. Her whole body was moving as she was breathing hard and the other birds weren't like that at all.

Post by **Hilary** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:55 pm

She definitely sounds sick since she's getting winded so easily. I would separate her as soon as you can get your hands on your hospital cage and get the heat on her (even though she's not puffy). I don't always have the best of luck after that point, because you don't know what's causing the diarrea. Is she eating well? Acting normally otherwise? Does the poop smell at all bad?

beccafigs · Post by **beccafigs** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 11:44 am

I haven't smelled the poop but it looks very strange. I see she slept in the same place for part of the night since it piled up a bit, and it has a different texture and the odd green color. Maybe it's a parasite? Other than the poop and the getting winded she seems perfectly normal. She hops all over, flies around, eats normally, and she's been preening like normal.