Poop eater?

I just caught Zada at the bottom of her cage eating her poop. Should I be worried? I try to keep the grate as clean as I can but I dont clean it everyday. Im pretty grossed out and concerned.

Can't say I've ever seen that behavior, though our birds do forage through the cage-bottom crud for food sometimes. Maybe thats what she was doing?

Maybe she was just curious? Could it be a vitamin deficiency? I really dont know.

if it were a vitamin deficiency, should would be doing it incessantly. Just keep an eye on her, its probably nothing.

Okay haha I will watch the little poo eater, and make sure she doesnt strike again. I think she might have been doing it for attention because when she did it I ran over there and was like "Hey what are you doing!!" and then I just walked away again and when I came back she looked at me and then ran to the bottom of her cage like she was going to do it again. Could that be possible?I will ask Patrick if he has seen her ever do it when he gets home from work.

I've seen discussions about this on other forums. It's called coprophagia and it's not completely unknown. Some people point to mineral deficiency, some to suppressed gut flora. It could also be an attention getting behavior. As far as I know, there is no real established cause -- in mammals or birds. You could try offering a mineral block and some avian probiotics, but I'd say if the behavior is very persistent, check in with your vet and see what he or she has to say.

Yep. What SnS said. Probiotics, mineral blocks, and for the next while spend more time keeping the cache grate clean than you have previously so that it doesn't become a habit. Try and do the cleaning when she's not around to see your "interest" in her poo and TRY not to react in such an excited manner when you see her doing it. When you catch her, get up calmly and proceed over to the cage and try to distract her with an object rather than your attention. It's hard to do, but try to minimize your interaction with her at that point so you're not inadvertently reinforcing the behavior.

Good luck. I don't expect it's a huge problem at this point, but it's certainly a turn-off!

And again, you're a new mommy so you're watching her every move. She's healthy and if this isn't a constant activity, I wouldn't worry over much. Kids will be kids. But if she does do it all the time, I would let the vet know.

Hey mommy,,, how about a kiss ??? Don't stress over the fid eating poo . Mine do it too, LOL I can't figure out why though.Some times i'll see them doing it for weeks at a time and then won't see them do it for a year. At one time i thought they did it after giving them antibiotics and they were ingesting "good" bacteria. But since, that doesn't hold true. Do you know where your fid is ? and what it's doing ? I love you mommy... PS just a thought,,does your bird eat dried poo after eating something hard and it wants something to help grind up their food in the crop..???Maybe Miss Deb could do a survey , What is different when you notice your bird eating poo ??

Sparrow did it a few times as a little beeb, but it was a phase.

we learned about poop eating at school its called caprophegy (cant spell) some mammals do it and reptiles but the teacher didnt meantion birds lol. i know dogs do this because they dont use all the fat while digesting so it goes into the waste and they eat it because they can smell the fat in the feces. iguanas do it as juviniles because they need good bacteria from a healthy adult for their digestive system. i wouldnt really worry about it animals eating feces is pretty common.

The term is coprophagia, and I believe all those explanations for the behavior are speculative or there is some evidence to suggest it, but it's really not very well understood. However it is fairly common.

My boy eats his poop too. He waits until it dries, then crunches the dried poop off the seed catcher on the sides of his cage.

He has absolutely zero interest in any kind of mineral block or cuttlebone, and his vet says he doesn't need one. She thinks his diet is perfect.