Black poop?

[darth_mint]

Yesterday morning Nicky dropped two BLACK poops. The morning bomb was normal, but the two after it were really black - not even dark brown, literally tar black. The third one was discernibly very dark brown. And there are no blueberries/cranberries/cherries in his diet. It freaked me out! But throughout the rest of the day the rest of his poop was normal. Just those three very dark coloured ones. No other black drops today, either.

 

It's scaring me, because I recently bought some new wood blocks for him to chew on - pine from the DIY section of Daiso, but a bit harder than the wood on his usual toys. I did mess around with them to check for hardness, and they seemed soft enough not to cause trouble...BUT...there's always the awful possibility he's swallowing splinters.

 

On the other hand, I've been feeding him black grapes and he eats them skin and all. These are the sort of grapes that really leave stains on everything...so I don't know whether it's the grapes or the wood.

 

Advice please? This is making me nervous...

[danmcq]

It is probably the black grapes, especially if he had some that day.

 

To see if thats what it is, do not feed him any grapes for a few days and watch his stools. Black poop is something to be concerned about if you can not link it to a food, as it could indicate internal bleeding.

[BMustee]

Diddo with Dan. Tar black poop does indicate bleeding, but the black grapes could also bethe cause. Don't give any black grapes for a few days and watch his poo.

[darth_mint]

I skipped the black grapes for one day: no black poop. Then I tried giving them again and sure enough, a couple of black poops showed up this morning. But the timing is really strange! Here's the schedule:

 

8.30 pm: gave Nicky 2 small black grapes

9.00 pm: put him to bed

7.15 am next morning: Nicky wakes up

7.30 am: first morning bomb - completely normal

7.30-8.00 am: three little tar black poops

Rest of the day: poop normal

 

I don't understand why the first poop is normal but the 2nd-4th poops are black. What's more (don't gross out) I poked one of them apart to see if there was anything solid/sharp inside and it was very oily. Is that normal?

 

Thinking of scraping up a sample and taking it to the vet

[danmcq]

Well, it's the "FIFO" principal, first in, first out. So I would suspect the black oily 730am poop, was the remnants of the Grapes.

 

But, if you want to be certain, taking it in for analysis would certainly give you the exact composition of it.

 

I could almost make a color splash portrait with Dayo's multi-colored outputs. Yellow = the eggs, Green = Harrisions, seeds, nuts, Reddish = Cherries or red colored pellets and a gold color = squash, carrots and other similar colored items consumed. :-)

[Tycos_mom]

I don't worry to much anymore I feed my birds such a wide variaty of food that If I worryed everytime the color was a little off I'd be at the vet constantly. as long as it has all three components and the birds are eating playing and vocalizng normaly i feel safe. Mind you I was a little concerned after Tyco ate beetgreens for the first time her poop was a little slimy but it soon straitened itself out and got back to normal. I worry more about the texture than the colour with my birds.