Simon's red poop and crash landings

[Zoom]

This morning I noticed when Simon pooped on the white leather couch that all the liquid was red. My first thought was that it was blood, and I was scared. His wings were trimmed before he left the breeder's, and he has had several crash landings each day, into walls and floors. I was afraid he was bleeding internally as the result of an internal injury.

 

However, then I remembered that he had raw beets as part of his supper last night. I'm assuming it's the beets that turned his poop red, because I remember that happened with my baby sister years ago. I've been keeping an eye on his poops ever since (which isn't hard, since he has most of them on me) and they seem to be normal again. (There were several red ones in the cage from overnight.)

 

Other than that, he seems normal. Good appetite, cheerful, sociable, affectionate, vocal. Do you think I'm right about the beets, or should I be worrying?

 

Also, is there anything I can do to prevent the crash landings? It makes me crazy to see him smashing into walls, although it doesn't seem to bother him as much as it bothers me. He won't be trimmed again....but how long will it take for his feathers to grow back fully?

[judygram]

You are right about the beets as I have fed them to Josey and her poop the next morning was the prettiest shade of purplish red, very colorful but can be frightening if you don't remember giving them the beets. For some reason when they are fresh out of the garden they color the poops more so than if just canned beets and it does me the same way, heh heh.

[Butttaxi]

eeek the crash landings freaked me out so much too I really had no idea what to do about them and if he was going to fly he would have to learn to land. I am not sure if this was what did the trick but he did get better at landing after the training. I would encourage the flight but be where he was going to fly and then sort of catch him. I would move my hand to the direction he was coming in so it would be easier to land on my hand. This helped him with landing on his feet and not smash into a wall. After a few times he would just fly and aim for my hand. Once he was good with that I started making him fly to his perch so he would get comfortable with landing on other things. He now flies around the apartment and has several landing spots, he had to learn where the best places were to land and then he stopped flying aimlessly.

[Zoom]

Do they all do that? How long does it last?

 

I thought maybe Simon was just a bit uncoordinated. But I'm so impressed with how he does other things that require mental coordination.

 

I love that I can watch him trying to figure something out. The little wheels are turning as he thinks a multi-step operation through. Sometimes he decides that the easiest way to get from Point A to Point B is to act like a baby and beg me to carry him. Other times he figures it out for himself. Kazoo and I both cheer like crazy when Simon makes it to the very top of his cage play top, up on top of the toy hook. He has to crawl and climb and grip the toy and flap his wings and eventually he makes it - we cheer and shout and he wags his tail and fluffs his feathers.

 

I can't get over what a good eater he is. He's always got his head in the food bowl and he makes the sweetest little noises while he's eating. He eats his warm mash, and lots of raw fruits and veggies. The only thing he doesn't seem to like much is apple.

 

He poops a lot. Way more than Kazoo. Do you think it's because he's a baby, or because he's a Grey, or because he eats so much?

[Butttaxi]

I am not sure if they all do this, I would assume they would because they need to learn where all the best places are to land especially when in a new place and since your little guy is still a baby he still has to learn.

 

Again I am not sure if its a grey thing but Rorschach eats a lot too he's a little piggy. When I get him his meals he doesn't usually gobble it all up right away, he will pick a while and then later go back and finish it all off. I think he is waiting for me to give him something better and when I don't, he decides it's good enough.

[Ray P]

We have dogs, cats, chickens, rabbits, peacocks, ducks, and goats and the only poop I check is the parrots. We watch what goes in and what comes out.

My friends think I`m nuts and that I should spend some time with a shrink.

[Butttaxi]

hahaha I know what you mean, David thinks I am obsessing over Rorschach's poop too much he thinks I should calm down because I am always freaking if it's too watery or an off colour then he reassures me that he had a lot of water or he ate something brightly coloured. We were both freaking out when his poop went from being green to being a brownish colour, this was when we first got him and when researched we discovered that what he eats affected his droppings.

[Ray P]

If we can come up with some safe colored foods for our fids to eat we could come up with a new fad and call it poop art.

[TitaniumPhoenix]

I'm glad my hubby and I aren't the only ones who wonder about our birds poop! Ruffles has a tendency (even if we only look away for a second) to eat anything around him. His poop has been purple, blue, red and after sticking his head into a bag of Dorritos and going to town, orange! Lol!

[Zoom]

I can tell by looking at a dropping on the floor, which bird it came from. My boyfriend is very impressed by that, in a weird sort of way.

[judygram]

I have 3 birds and I can tell their poops apart, of course it helps that each is a different kind of bird.