FINCHforum

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 8:54 pm**

Hello,

One hen which I purchased and was terribly sick was nursed back into good condition. Just last week I was caught off guard in that she pooed a dark red stool, but I had fed her red bell pepper. Next day, her stool returned to normal. However, I decided after that to put her on quicko red food. Her poo is the color as seen in the photo.

Does anyone ever have this problem when color feeding?

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 10:14 pm**

I have seen discolored poo due to various foods.

In cases where I'm not sure whether the poo is discolored due to food or a health issue, I'll do a trial for a couple weeks. I'll feed the suspect food every few days and I'll monitor the poo to ensure that it correlates to the times when they've eaten the food.

Obviously if you see the discoloration and you didn't feed the suspect food item, then it's a sign of a problem.

So just keep a little notebook. Make a note of when you feed the peppers and when you see the discolored poops. Skip a couple days and don't feed the peppers and watch to see if you see any discoloration. Then feed the peppers again and look to see if the discoloration returns. If you do this and keep good notes, it will become clear whether it's a result of the food or a health issue.

With blood, if it's dark brownish red, then it's from the upper portion of the GI tract. If it's bright red, then it's from the lower portion of the GI tract.

Best of luck!

Posted: **Sun Dec 28, 2014 10:21 pm**

The red egg food does make their poo dark red as seen in the picture. It does mean that the bird is getting more red than it needs. I prefer to get bogena and mix it into plain egg food, enough so that the poo is only slightly darker, not red.

Posted: **Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:20 am**

I haven't color fed, but one time when I ran out of my regular seed mix and had to get some from the feed store, it had those little colored pellets in it. I was startled to see red smears in the cage the next day, thought a bird was bleeding, till I realized it was just red poop from the colored pellets. Which is why I don't like seed mixes that have those pellets in them.

Posted: **Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:51 am**

Atbird wrote: The red egg food does make their poo dark red as seen in the picture. It does mean that the bird is getting more red than it needs. I prefer to get bogena and mix it into plain egg food, enough so that the poo is only slightly darker, not red.

Ok.

I was worried that they may have been getting too much red. These are mahogany bronze as in your photo. They are feeding their young and I was offering quicko red food daily.

I'll stop it for about 3 days and see if any changes occur.

Thanks

Posted: **Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:55 am**

Sally wrote: I haven't color fed, but one time when I ran out of my regular seed mix and had to get some from the feed store, it had those little colored pellets in it. I was startled to see red smears in the cage the next day, thought a bird was bleeding, till I realized it was just red poop from the colored pellets. Which is why I don't like seed mixes that have those pellets in them.

I'm trying my best to get uncolored seed mix, but the manufacturers who also produce private label are unwilling.

I'm really upset, because the color seeds and pellets are in demand by parrot owners. They think it's cute.

Maybe we should make a forum against parrot owners ...lol jk.

They don't want to shut their lines down just to put in uncolored seed and for the life of me, I couldn't understand why the private label mfg kept wondering why it was so bad.

Well.. It's bad for health reasons nothing in the fact that many synthetic colors are toxic and the fact that it discolors stool . It's also bad bc it discolors our birds as well.

My yellow canaries have red spots on them because of it.

Posted: **Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:57 am**

MiaCarter wrote: I have seen discolored poo due to various foods.

In cases where I'm not sure whether the poo is discolored due to food or a health issue, I'll do a trial for a couple weeks. I'll feed the suspect food every few days and I'll monitor the poo to ensure that it correlates to the times when they've eaten the food.

Obviously if you see the discoloration and you didn't feed the suspect food item, then it's a sign of a problem.

So just keep a little notebook. Make a note of when you feed the peppers and when you see the discolored poops. Skip a couple days and don't feed the peppers and watch to see if you see any discoloration. Then feed the peppers again and look to see if the discoloration returns. If you do this and keep good notes, it will become clear whether it's a result of the food or a health issue.

With blood, if it's dark brownish red, then it's from the upper portion of the GI tract. If it's bright red, then it's from the lower portion of the GI tract.

Best of luck!

I will do so. I'm not tinto keeping daily logs. I like to work my brain and its memory mechanisms, but as my grandfather used to say
"The ink of a bad pen is better than good memory"

Wise words.

Posted: **Mon Dec 29, 2014 11:57 am**

If you can get Hagen seed mix, I use their Finch Staple VME mix, which does not contain any pellets. It is a good basic mix, which I then supplement myself with egg food and veggies.

http://usa.hagen.com/Bird/Nutrition/Basic/B2403

Show people prefer to use plain seed, because if you put a seed mix with colored pellets in the bottom of a show cage, and you have a light-colored bird, you very likely will wind up with a bird with stained feathers, which is considered a fault (presentation).

Posted: **Mon Dec 29, 2014 9:16 pm**

Sally wrote: If you can get Hagen seed mix, I use their Finch Staple VME mix, which does not contain any pellets. It is a good basic mix, which I then supplement myself with egg food and veggies.

http://usa.hagen.com/Bird/Nutrition/Basic/B2403

Show people prefer to use plain seed, because if you put a seed mix with colored pellets in the bottom of a show cage, and you have a light-colored bird, you very likely will wind up with a bird with stained feathers, which is considered a fault (presentation).

I will try to source this mix if it's readily available. Thank you much.

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