[Piperpigeon]

I have a lovely rescue pigeon, Piper. She is about 18 months old and is laying eggs on a regular basis. She usually makes a large dropping that is mostly solid but her droppings have become very loose and horribly foul smelling. I give her mostly safflower and hemp seeds and she's always done well with that. What shall I do? Thank you for any advice.

 

[Marina B]

It's normal for them to produce those droppings when they are incubating eggs. They keep it in until off the eggs and then it all comes out. Do you give apple cider vinegar on a regular basis? Both those kind of seeds have a high fat content. Try adding other seeds as well.

 

[Piperpigeon]

It's normal for them to produce those droppings when they are incubating eggs. They keep it in until off the eggs and then it all comes out. Do you give apple cider vinegar on a regular basis? Both those kind of seeds have a high fat content. Try adding other seeds as well.

Marina, Thank you so much for your response. Piper has had loose droppings before she laid her eggs, but once she is sitting on them in the morning she normally would have a large solid dropping and now its dark green and watery. I tried giving her 1 c water with 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, but she really didn't take much of it. Any light you can shed on this is much appreciated.

 

[Marina B]

The acv is too much for 1 cup, that is probably why she is not drinking. For 1 cup (250 ml) you can add 1.2 ml acv.

 

[Piperpigeon]

The acv is too much for 1 cup, that is probably why she is not drinking. For 1 cup (250 ml) you can add 1.2 ml acv.

Yes, I used your dilution and she drank it just fine. Thank you so so much. What does the ACV do?

 

[Marina B]

The acv lowers the Ph levels and creates an unfavourable environment for bad bacteria to develop. It does not affect the good gut bacteria, so your bird stays healthy. It's a natural antibiotic. Sould be given twice a week as the drinking water for the day.

 

[GladWingsOfDestiny]

I actually like to use an electronic PH meter when adding acv to water. I have one left over from when I used to grow........tomatoes....yeah, that's the ticket.......tomatoes...

I lower the PH to around 5.5 - 6.0

I read that birds can actually do ok with significantly lower PH water than that, but I think that's more than sufficient to mess up those nasty neutrophile bacteria. And that's pretty much what I give them every day. Plus some Vita-pro combo mixed in on occasion.

If that's not good to do every day, I would love for someone to tell me to stop. But so far it has worked out really well. My breeder pair came in with some shipping stress and I think the acv really helped to sort them out.