FINCHforum

When a hen is incubating her eggs is it normal for her vent area to be a little messy? She has never had that problem before and I saw it today (as she was off the eggs, b/c she's always laying on them) and it was a little messy.

hi emily
obviously if she is not getting out of the nest then the poop has to go somewhere ,you may find that the end of her wing feathers may curl and get dirty if she is spending a long time in the nest what happens is the amonia in the droppings starts to rot the feather ends sometimes when youngsters come out of the nest they have the same thing....you will have to get her a diaper

ken

No finches that I know of excrete ammonia; they get rid of nitrogenous waste in the form of uric acid (the white chalky part of their droppings). This is part of the reason their feces and urine don't really have a noxious odor. Uric acid is pretty benign: not very toxic, not water soluable, and it can be stored in eggs without damaging embryos. I think feather wear assosciated with breeding may be due to less time spent preening and more time spent in a confined space (incubating/brooding).

There are a few exceptions in the bird world (a few fruit/nectar eating birds) which occasionally excrete some ammonia, but none of them are finches.

You might enjoy reading this page:

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/bird_excretion.htm