My kak keeps eating poops!

Chewie · Regular Member Joined: Jun 23, 2014 Posts: 15

My kakariki is 8 months old and has always had a predisposition to eating his poops. I also have a 1 year old cockatiel, and my kak will eat his poops also if given a chance. I have heard this can be a nutritional deficiency but I think his diet is quiet varied and good. They have separate cages and both have 1 bowl of pellets and 1 bowl of parrot seed mixture available all day. Twice daily they get fresh water with a vitamin A & D3 drop in it. Twice daily they get quinoa bread, spelt, pumpkin seeds, flax, chili peppers, fresh mixed spring greens, broccoli, red pepper, basil, rosemary, mint, sweet pea sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, sage, kiwi, apple, and any other veggie & fruits I have available at the time. For protein I give a small amount of boiled egg and 1 mealworm for each bird. They are strictly indoor birds (in my apartment) but I open the cages as soon as I get up in the morning and they can come and go all day as they please. They are both energetic and playful and spend plenty of time flying and bouncing around the place. I wash perches, ladders, and dishes daily and do a full cage breakdown and clean weekly. They both get a daily bath to splash in and have a willow branch perch I made so they can preen after the bath and look out the window. They both have parrot appropriate toys in and out of cages. I think I have met all their needs. If he notices a poop I didn't get wiped up immediately then he eats it. Do you think this is nutritional? If so, what am I missing? Could it just be a naughty habit. I have also heard the theory that prey birds will eat their own poop to help hide their location from other animals that might want to prey on them and it might just be an instinct? Any suggestions or comments are w3c

and thanks for this wonderful kakariki forum. I love my little green clown!

Steptoe · Site Admin Joined: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 4550

Eating poo in small amounts occasionally is not unusual...
Excessive tends to be a mineral deficiency .....
From your description of diet , unlikely

But in saying that could be something to do with your local/ country or even continent geology to.
EG In NZ we have no iodine ijn our soils, so gout (or is it goutre never rem) was a major health issue upto the 1920s when by law iodine was added to ALL table salt by law... Then in the rise of PC do gooders, the right to choose BS, the law changed ion the 80s/ 90s.. guess what, those who use idodised salt now pay for a huge national health issue for the damn do gooders.
Folioc acid is another one....and large areas in the central Nth Island of NZ could not be farmed till a few sacks of cobalt where scattered just after WW1....
If the diet is varied , balanced and consistent, I would not be too worried...
But idf was me, the crewing of poos a bit excessive, then I would get a bottle multi vitamin/ mineral capsules , read the dosage on the bottle, relate that person weight to bird weight...and divide the contents of a capsill up with a razor blade on a bit of glass, like one sees in movies with drugs signlol

We have done this in the past with anti biotic etc for our cats birds, and For vitamin K when one of the king parrots got into a block of rat poison.
Yes all worked well

Edit.. just been thinking about this....our birds (not just the kakariki) used to be seen eating poos long time ago, and havnt observed this behavour for quite a long time... since been adding a little Raw orange palm oil to the veggies...about 5 spoons of melted 50/50 mix raw palm oil and olive oil per approx 6 kg of chopped veggies...

Chewie · Regular Member Joined: Jun 23, 2014 Posts: 15

Sounds like a good suggestion. I will head to the health food store tomorrow and get some red palm oil and some organic olive oil and add to their veggie buffet I set up. Needed to get some goodies for the "boys" anyway. I haven't really worried about it, cause I think his diet is good, he eats anything and everything I put out and even steals my food (caught him standing in my spaghetti dinner the other day, munching away with sauce all over his feet), too funny for words!!

Was reading another post about bird toys and the hamster wheel etc. My kak's favorite toys are his sisel bird kabob that he can rip up, a small ball with a jingly ball inside it (actually a cat toy) and his coconut. The coconut is a whole shell, hollowed out with a large hole on 2 sides. It is hung in his cage and he will forage for treats I hid in it, or just play for awhile going in and out of it (very acrobatic) and chew on the edges. He also has a small green frog stuffed toy - like a beanie baby - that he just loves to pick up with those huge feet and throw off the table. We spend about 1 hour each morning playing with the jingle balls and froggie. He even picks froggie up in his beak and walks around with him. My family thinks it's hilarious when they come to visit. The kakariki has such an amazing, fun personality and mine is so tame and super friendly. He doesn't like to sit on you like other parrots (that's their way) but he loves it when I hold him on his back in the palm of my hand and give him a tummy tickle and then blow raspberry kisses on his belly. I put him down and he comes running over for another one.
Thanks for the reply.

Steptoe · Site Admin Joined: Oct 06, 2004 Posts: 4550