Recognizing Diseases in Caged Birds

Smaller caged birds (finches, canaries, parakeets) tend to have an individual blob of fecal material with an accompanying amount of urate. The amount of urine excreted is usually quite small.

A bird has diarrhea when the fecal portion of the dropping lacks form ('pea soup'). Diarrhea is not very common in birds. A dropping with a normal fecal portion but a large amount of urine around it represents a watery dropping (polyuria), not diarrhea! All diarrheic droppings appear loose, but not all loose or watery droppings constitute diarrhea. This Is a very important distinction. Polyuric droppings may indicate disease (diabetes or kidney disease), but more often they result from increased water consumption or consumption of large amounts of fleshy fruits and vegetables.

The color, consistency and amount of each component of the droppings of normal caged birds frequently change, depending on the type of food consumed, amount of water consumed, amount of stress experienced, mood changes, and other factors. Abnormal droppings typically remain abnormal in appearance during the entire course of a bird's illness.