Weird poop behaviour

[TacoNTiki]

Out Tiki doesn't like to poop in his cage and I get that, as well as know that it is common because they don't want to alert predators by pooping where they sleep. However, tiki will poop in his food dish (which is in his cage) when we are out longer then he wants to hold it. Does anyone know why he would do it in his food dish?

 

[Piasa]

Could it be because the food dish is located somewhere below a place he likes to sit? Or maybe he is going in the food dish because he knows you'll come and clean it, or give him new food...

 

[TacoNTiki]

There isn't a perch above his food and the way I see it he 'purposely' hangs his butt in because i have never seen him perch on his dish with bum side in. If he perches normally on his dish it would land outside. It must be that he knows I will clean it. But then the one to two times that he ever pooped in his cage since coming home to us 8 months ago, I have always clean that up right away too. Wish I could understand his reasoning . He is such a funny bird.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Hi it doesnt really matter where he goes just the he does as holding it for periods of time is not good. Try putting and empty food dish in as well to see if he gets the message?

 

[JerseyWendy]

If he insists on going in his food dish, perhaps you can replace those with something like this?
Hooded Ceramic Cup, Bird Food Cups & Dishes for Sale Online | PetSolutions

Sure, he COULD still use those as his personal 'oval office', but it'll make it a little more difficult.

 

[TacoNTiki]

Yes we have always been worried about him holding it. But can't seem to cure him of this habit. The good thing is even on my days of work, my hubby is home early and lets him out. So he is only ever in his cage 4-5 hours max before being able to come out to poop. Even still I wish he would go in there, but how do you convince a bird to poop. He has no problem going in our tiels cage whenever he sneaks in there, LOL.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Yes we have always been worried about him holding it. But can't seem to cure him of this habit. The good thing is even on my days of work, my hubby is home early and lets him out. So he is only ever in his cage 4-5 hours max before being able to come out to poop. Even still I wish he would go in there, but how do you convince a bird to poop. He has no problem going in our tiels cage whenever he sneaks in there, LOL.

Hi so if this is right your bird doesn't poop or 4-5 hours? Wow that's a long time. If you see him poop in his cage give praise and hopefully he will take it on board it's Ok along with regular cage cleans if he is a fussy bird.

 

[TacoNTiki]

Well the thing is if he is in his cage for 4-5 hours it means we are not home, as otherwise he is out (except for when we put him in for short durations to clean, cook etc.). His cage is pristine so I don't know if he is "fussy" about it. He seems fine. I mean lately he goes in his food dish so he will go when needed. We always praise him when he goes while out. I have heard a lot of conures choose to not go in their cage... Am I correct?

 

[Piasa]

Does Tiki use his perches to hang out on, or is he sitting on his bowls a lot? What kind of perches? Mentioning this in case he doesn't have firm footing on them, he may not want to go to the bathroom. My green cheek is this way. He doesn't try to go if he's sitting on manzanita or java wood, too slippery.

Are the bowls side by side? He could be sitting on one bowl while crapping in the other.

If you put in another food bowl, is he just pooping in the one?

Putting a bowl in the corner of the cage means his long tail is going to hit the cage sides if he positions his butt over the bowl. Something else to think about.

Maybe some more experimenting will yield some insight. Like Plum's Mom said, just make sure Tiki still uses the bathroom - much more important than where!

And cage fussiness.. Beau seems compelled to poop the moment everything is squeaky clean, haha! They are very aware.

 

[TacoNTiki]

Not a good day today. The whole family went to a day long sport competition for daughter's team. We were gone 7:30 am to 6:30 pm. I expected that he would have gone somewhere in his cage, but I checked it all over and not one sign of poop anywhere!!! That means he held it for 11 hours!

He does have java wood perch and it is quite thick so I know he cannot grip on that. Also that's his sleeping perch. As well he has a spiral rope that is the right thickness for his size, two cement perches, a seagrass hut, an the wooden dowel perch the cage came with. His bowls are side by side but not close enough for him to hang over the other. He has toys on the floor of his cage - could this be the reason he won't poop, not wanting to mess on his toys?

I am so worried for him..

 

[plumsmum2005]

Hi I hope he is Ok? Eleven hours wow. From what I can find out it stems from not wanting to poop where they sleep because in the wild it gives predators a sign of where they are roosting. I hope that someone more experienced with this breed will jump in re trying to get round this inbuilt behaviour. Can your AV help? Sorry not more help 2U.

 

[Piasa]

Did he poop when you returned? Was it abnormal size, smell, abnormal looking at all? I would also check with a vet at this point to make sure this is behavioral rather than medical. Is he eating when you are gone?

Perches with bark or cholla wood perches are what Beau is best with. I've had a couple times dealing with him and constipation issues, medical reasons, and these were the places he would sit to go when he was having most trouble: cholla perch and bottlebrush perch. Put them in Tiki's favorite spots to sit, and see if he will sit on them and if this helps. Beau was prescribed a laxative that helped a lot when he had a partial blockage, the other time he was dehydrated and got better after antibiotic and lots of kidney-friendly liquids and wet foods.

 

[Piasa]

One more thing I just thought of, do you have any other cage or travel cage that he can use for a bit to see if he will use the bathroom in there? Especially since you said he doesn't seem to have issues with the cockatiel's cage. Maybe if this works, you can have him in this extra cage when you need to be gone for longer periods of time, at least until you can figure out a better system.

 

[TacoNTiki]

He does have a travel cage.... And a pretty nice one too albeit small and that's why I never considered putting him in it while home. He has pooped in there - no issues. And yes he did poop when we let him out - no issues there either. Normal big dump, ;-). We have never been concerned about his droppings other than the no pooping in his cage. I will look into getting another perch with bark to see if they works. Just now I put him in his cage and said go poopy. He tilted his head and looked at me then climbed out of his cage onto the floor, took a dump and then climbed back in his cage

 

[plumsmum2005]

Hi, As well as that already suggested here do you think if you said "go poopy" each and every time before opening his cage door to let him out it would work as well as praising him if he does go? Long term this could be a serious problem which each and everyone of us tries to avoid with our fids. Please let us know how things go.

 

[Piasa]

That is all very strange! Will be watching this thread and let you know if I can think of anything else. Glad he is in good spirits and seems healthy.