Worried about Gargantuan Poops

[slushii]

I’ve had my conure for maybe two months now. She is on a mix of 60% Zupreem fruit pellets, 40% sunburst seed mix, and she gets random fruits and vegetables everyday depending on what I am eating.

I’ve had a cockatiel before and their poops are definitely way easier to maintain than my conure. I’m confused about her poop.

I’ve noticed right when I take her out of the cage, she tends to poop right away. This is at any time of the day. The poop is usually HUGE, and everytime I think i’ve seen the biggest one, it keeps getting bigger and more concerning.

Today I took her out and she was on my shoulder while I was on the couch, she pushed her little butt out and I hear an audible pbbt and just sprayed all over the back of my couch, and my shirt. The biggest one I’ve seen yet. The poos are usually dark brown or dark green with the white bit (urate if i remember correctly).

The poop was not solid, it was more of a mushy texture, but the bit on my shirt was more solid. Two or three minutes later she had a very tiny poo on me again, the size of a grain of rice. One minute later she did a normal size poo on the couch again.

It’s weird because I feel like she is ALWAYS pushing and trying to poop? And I’m not sure why. And her poos are so big, my mom is starting to get mad and I’m of course concerned. She is otherwise completely healthy.

 

[wrench13]

Like how can a poop that big come out of such a tiny parrot! Seriously now, on an individual basis, some parrots like to hold it in in the mornings to have the big poop of the day for when they come out. I know Salty's morning poop is the biggest one he takes all day (estimated of course - no one is catching all of them and weighing them.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Like how can a poop that big come out of such a tiny parrot! Seriously now, on an individual basis, some parrots like to hold it in in the mornings to have the big poop of the day for when they come out. I know Salty's morning poop is the biggest one he takes all day (estimated of course - no one is catching all of them and weighing them.

A parrot passes solid waste and liquid waste simultaneously via it's vent (cloaca). Male parrots expel their sperm through the cloaca and female parrots lay eggs through their vents. A big wet poop is nothing compared to an egg! Parrots can hold their poops until they chose to expel them, and the "held" poops grow in size as more waste reaches the cloaca. Female parrots brooding eggs and young chicks do not poop in their nest box, leaving to eat, stretch their wings and poop, so their poops can become almost shockingly large.
When I was hand feeding my budgie Rocky, he would "squat" and squirt out a big poop right after each feeding, some of which were twice the size of an adult budgies' because he was being fed a thick, rich formula the consistency of jarred baby food. If you watch a parrot closely when he poops, you'll notice that the poops don't just drop out of him. The bird shifts his body, sometimes squatting a bit, his tail rises, and then he expels the poop. She may appear to be "straining" but unless she has a medical problem it's entirely normal.