FINCHforum

I just got a pair of shaftails, both look in great shape, the feathers are great, evertything look normal but the poop wich has a
brick-white color instead of the classic green-white, at the beggining i tought it could be blood or something but poop is compact except for some really large poop they do in the morning with the same proble.
i read some were that it may be a sigh of Kidney desease or maybe internal bleeding, so i am kind of worried, what its good medicine or tratment for kidney ? should i give probiatics? or what do you think is the best thing to do?

ty

What were they being fed prior to you buying them and what is their diet now?

they were basically in the same diet i have them now, White Proso Millet and Canary Grass Seed, i am just adding some supplemets like Turbo booster , ioford , Minerals , megamix twice a week and some greens .

My shaftails love and will eat the Zupreem finch pellets fluit blend over the seed....they also like Herb Salad and love Proteen 25 Snack attack by Higgins. Your birds are getting basically two kinds of seed neither are very good alone, they may need more of a hearty diet since shaftails if flighted are high energy, big birds. You are supplementing them but personally I would amp up the foods first the supplements. The way supplements work is you need a good food diet to have them interact correctly. Is there a reason for the iodine supplement?

I would try first giving them a more balanced diet, more than just two seed types...mine won't even touch canary seed and will down millet, which is not a good diet alone. Try mixing the pellets or serving the pellets alone in a dish alone side of a good seed mix, see if you notice an improvement. I use no supplements other than shaved mineral block, cuttlebone and powdered oyster shell. They get greens, Proteen 25, pellets, crushed eggshell, Herb Salad....you can actually defeat the purpose of supplements if the diet is not good.

I would opt to change the diet to a better more varied one, cut out all the extra supplements, especially the iodine...I would do this before medicating them for a condition that might be diet related.

ty cindy

i never tought it could be a poor diet, because the birds look awesome, but now that you mention it, it makes sense, i had them in a basic diet because i tought they were sick, but now i am trying the regular diet i use with my other finches plus the fruit blend, i have herb salad, ill add a few to them too.
so do you think the color of the poop is due to that?

Possibly, try the new diet for a few days, I am sure they will benefit from the extra nutrition.

Do they have any other symptoms, or just a strange color poo?

It could just be the food or lack of and the supplements. Within a few days the color of their poo most likely will change. The Zupreem pellets fruit blend has a lot of minerals and nutrition in them, i would still add green, herb salad and cuttlebone and powdered oyster shell...see how they do. Please keep us posted.