[RajibSuba]

Hi,
So I observed some unusual colored droppings from my little guy yesterday evening.

1st droppings seems to be little brownish and red. Could it be coz of..I just hope that it is not having any internal bleeding?
Iam not feeding him any hard & pointed/cracked grains at all. Most of them are round grains like millets,mustard,fruits,veggies and pellets. Some grains which I give are after soaking in water to make them soft since I somehow feel it is still a baby.

2nd droppings seems to have almost 80-90% of white and only a small amount of dark brown. Please see the below photos & video, I hope its active and healthy

 

[SilverFeral]

Hello,

When it comes to dropping there are two things to consider:
1st are they all like that or did the pigeon have 3-4 of bad poops and then they return to normal
2nd did the pigeon eat a lot of one kind of food that can make poops oily, certain color etc.

If just few poops are like this and then it returns to normal with bird acting completely normal, I would not worry. Also if the pigeon ate a lot of just one kind of seed I would make sure he eats a varied mix and monitor the poop further. This is especially if the bird is acting normal. If this happens everything is most likely OK.

If I learned anything is not to panic if I see few bad poops. But if this thing continues or you notice any changes, off to the vet right away.

As for the photos the first poop does look very concerning, but I once saw exactly the same poop it was just green, very pigmented. It ended up to be excess oil in food or too much sunflower seed.
The second poop looks much better and I would call it normal, with a bit more oil that normal in it. So did your bird eat something very oily, sunflower seeds, peanuts, hemp, oil seed?

 

[RajibSuba]

Hello,

When it comes to dropping there are two things to consider:
1st are they all like that or did the pigeon have 3-4 of bad poops and then they return to normal
2nd did the pigeon eat a lot of one kind of food that can make poops oily, certain color etc.

If just few poops are like this and then it returns to normal with bird acting completely normal, I would not worry. Also if the pigeon ate a lot of just one kind of seed I would make sure he eats a varied mix and monitor the poop further. This is especially if the bird is acting normal. If this happens everything is most likely OK.

If I learned anything is not to panic if I see few bad poops. But if this thing continues or you notice any changes, off to the vet right away.

As for the photos the first poop does look very concerning, but I once saw exactly the same poop it was just green, very pigmented. It ended up to be excess oil in food or too much sunflower seed.
The second poop looks much better and I would call it normal, with a bit more oil that normal in it. So did your bird eat something very oily, sunflower seeds, peanuts, hemp, oil seed?

Hi,
I remember daily giving him fresh carrot which I grinded in vegetable grinder which I sprinkled it over its seed mix.
Also fed it with some bird pellets which had few red and pink coloured pellets along with others. Could it be because of that?
Now droppings seems to be normal from yesterday
I also mixed some flaxseed, white + black mustard seeds with its normal seed mix. Could the oil be coming from that?

 

[SilverFeral]

Hi,
I remember daily giving him fresh carrot which I grinded in vegetable grinder which I sprinkled it over its seed mix.
Also fed it with some bird pellets which had few red and pink coloured pellets along with others. Could it be because of that?
Now droppings seems to be normal from yesterday
I also mixed some flaxseed, white + black mustard seeds with its normal seed mix. Could the oil be coming from that?

Whit everything you wrote this looks just like coloring of poop more than anything. I personally always go by 80% rule, if 80% of poops daily are normal and 20% strange and pigeon is acting completely OK, I consider it normal.

 

[Colombina]

Totally agree with Silverferal.


Yes, the color of droppings is influenced by the color of the food.
My birds are used to eat even a mixture for canary containing dehydrated colored fruits. I remember that years ago I got too alarmed when I saw reddish poops. I thought too about bleeding (I also put some hydrogen peroxide on those poops to check for reaction..) but then I understood that it was the canary mixture.

I saw in your other thread a pic of the pellets that you are feeding. Actually it contains colored "sticks" . I think that even carrots could influence the color of droppings.

 

[RajibSuba]

Totally agree with Silverferal.


Yes, the color of droppings is influenced by the color of the food.
My birds are used to eat even a mixture for canary containing dehydrated colored fruits. I remember that years ago I got too alarmed when I saw reddish poops. I thought too about bleeding (I also put some hydrogen peroxide on those poops to check for reaction..) but then I understood that it was the canary mixture.

I saw in your other thread a pic of the pellets that you are feeding. Actually it contains colored "sticks" . I think that even carrots could influence the color of droppings.

Hi all please help I have been trying with almost all sort of the foods as per my knowledge and suggestions from many people. Still my little guy is slow, inactive and thin.
When I see outside pigeons in the street they seem to be active and fast in eating,roaming around.
Could it be coz of the type of breed he is from.
I found this supplement in my nearby store, could it be helpful.
Or whatever I give him is already good enough. I have posted earlier photos of mix, and you can see I give him green veggies, carrots, pumpkins, nuts, and most of the nutrients

 

[SilverFeral]

Hi all please help I have been trying with almost all sort of the foods as per my knowledge and suggestions from many people. Still my little guy is slow, inactive and thin.
When I see outside pigeons in the street they seem to be active and fast in eating,roaming around.
Could it be coz of the type of breed he is from.
I found this supplement in my nearby store, could it be helpful.
Or whatever I give him is already good enough. I have posted earlier photos of mix, and you can see I give him green veggies, carrots, pumpkins, nuts, and most of the nutrients

I watched the video of your pigeon carefully I would not say he is slow. Feral pigeons have to compete for food, fight for food, so they are constantly in turbo mode. Pet pigeons have their food, water and shelter secured so they are relaxed, sleep a lot more, and just look for ways to be cozy. Also please note that birds that are not flying every day will have much less muscle mass on their chest. When you palpate the breast bone, bone that goes along the whole front of the pigeon, you should feel muscles on both sides that are sloping gently from the tip of the breast bone towards wings. In captive pigeons that don't fly a lot these muscles can even be a bit lower than the tip of the breast bone. What you don't want is very small muscles so that the breast bone sticks out and you can feel its prominent ridge that you can basically grab with your fingers on both side - this is toot hin, and you also don't want muscles to fill out so they stick over the breast bone - that is too fat. So as long as you are in between, you are good.

If your pigeon is indeed thin, the best thing to do is bring poop to a vet to take a look at it under the microscope. It might happen that the pigeon has internal parasites, maybe he has a fungal infection in its crop or guts, or some mild bacterial infection that in interfering with digestion. Maybe there are issues with his liver or kidneys.

Lastly for food I prefer to feed a complete seed mix to my pet pigeon, from which I remove sunflower seeds and avoid any mix with hemp seeds. This is because I know he digests poorly fats. In addition to seed mix I also give grit (granite rocks, crushed shells and redstone), mineral block for pigeons (contains all minerals and microelements), and I also give in the morning seed mix that is coated with vitamins. Especially for indoor birds you should always provide supplements - both vitamins and minerals.

I suppose pellets are the best way to go as you secure all the nutrients at once but for my pigeon he was not doing so well with pellets as they were just too nutrient rich for his mostly sedentary life and some liver issues. he also had oily, brown or even smelly poops on pellets. So you can try to transition to a seed mix and suplementation and experiment a bit. I also noticed that fresh vegetables, even thou they are good for birds, my pigeon does not digest all that well, so I offer him but let him choose if he wants to eat them - I never mix them in to food to force him to eat them. Sometimes my pigeon will eat a whole kale leaf, and some days he will not go near it. I am confident birds to know what they need and it is best to provide variety of healthy foods and let them choose. The less healthy foods that should be taken in small amounts - sunflover, hemp, peanuts, niger seed, flax seed, sesame seed (all rich an oily) I give in small amounts as a treat.

 

[RajibSuba]

Thank a million lots, cleared most of my doubts. And yes Iam experimenting it with different variety of foods and nutrition.

 

[RajibSuba]

I watched the video of your pigeon carefully I would not say he is slow. Feral pigeons have to compete for food, fight for food, so they are constantly in turbo mode. Pet pigeons have their food, water and shelter secured so they are relaxed, sleep a lot more, and just look for ways to be cozy. Also please note that birds that are not flying every day will have much less muscle mass on their chest. When you palpate the breast bone, bone that goes along the whole front of the pigeon, you should feel muscles on both sides that are sloping gently from the tip of the breast bone towards wings. In captive pigeons that don't fly a lot these muscles can even be a bit lower than the tip of the breast bone. What you don't want is very small muscles so that the breast bone sticks out and you can feel its prominent ridge that you can basically grab with your fingers on both side - this is toot hin, and you also don't want muscles to fill out so they stick over the breast bone - that is too fat. So as long as you are in between, you are good.

If your pigeon is indeed thin, the best thing to do is bring poop to a vet to take a look at it under the microscope. It might happen that the pigeon has internal parasites, maybe he has a fungal infection in its crop or guts, or some mild bacterial infection that in interfering with digestion. Maybe there are issues with his liver or kidneys.

Lastly for food I prefer to feed a complete seed mix to my pet pigeon, from which I remove sunflower seeds and avoid any mix with hemp seeds. This is because I know he digests poorly fats. In addition to seed mix I also give grit (granite rocks, crushed shells and redstone), mineral block for pigeons (contains all minerals and microelements), and I also give in the morning seed mix that is coated with vitamins. Especially for indoor birds you should always provide supplements - both vitamins and minerals.

I suppose pellets are the best way to go as you secure all the nutrients at once but for my pigeon he was not doing so well with pellets as they were just too nutrient rich for his mostly sedentary life and some liver issues. he also had oily, brown or even smelly poops on pellets. So you can try to transition to a seed mix and suplementation and experiment a bit. I also noticed that fresh vegetables, even thou they are good for birds, my pigeon does not digest all that well, so I offer him but let him choose if he wants to eat them - I never mix them in to food to force him to eat them. Sometimes my pigeon will eat a whole kale leaf, and some days he will not go near it. I am confident birds to know what they need and it is best to provide variety of healthy foods and let them choose. The less healthy foods that should be taken in small amounts - sunflover, hemp, peanuts, niger seed, flax seed, sesame seed (all rich an oily) I give in small amounts as a treat.

Hi 1 last doubt... Are kidney beans, soya beans ok for them? Now somewhere in the internet I saw people mentioning that uncooked ones are poisonous and harmful for them.

 

[SilverFeral]

Hi 1 last doubt... Are kidney beans, soya beans ok for them? Now somewhere in the internet I saw people mentioning that uncooked ones are poisonous and harmful for them.

Kidney beans should never be given, soy beans yes but they fatten pigeons up. It is always best for pigeon to be a bit lean than to be fat, birds accumulate fats around internal organs much more than on the outside, so when there is fat you can feel on the stomach or base of the legs, there is much much more on the inside.

I give only prepared seed mixes for pigeons and the only beans I saw in those were horse beans - big brown ones that my pieon never liked and I would just pick them out of his food, and these small green ones called mung beans, now those he did like in small amounts. Everything else is mix of corns, peas, sunflower, saflower, and different small seeds I don't know how to name in English - I am not a native English speaker. Also very tiny seeds that are usually for small parrots, those seeds are not good food for pigeons as they are just to small and don't provide enough energy for pigeons.

The food I mainly use is this on the photo:

https://s8.pik.ba/galerija/2018-11/25/11/slika-1825516-5bfa74a3bae2c-velika.jpg

with the addition of red and yellow corn also. red corn is very good for pigeons it is richer in proteins than other types of corn.