Poop eating?!?

[jeanna]

I've noticed the past few days that Maya likes to eat poop. Her poop or Jasper's poop, wet poop or dry poop... It's disgusting and if I catch her I try to wipe it out of her mouth. She will do this even with a bowl of food in front of her. Both my birds have been vet checked and healthy, but it can't be good for her to eat poop!!! I try to clean as much of it away as I can so she can't even access it, but obviously I can't get every single poop or watch her 24/7.

So how bad is this for her health and how can I discourage it? I'm hoping she'll grow out of it and it's just that she's a baby and curious about trying new "foods".

 

[JLcribber]

They can be healthy for quite a while even though they are lacking something. There's a name for what she does but it escapes me right now. The treatment for it is some brewers yeast in their food.

 

[jeanna]

They can be healthy for quite a while even though they are lacking something. There's a name for what she does but it escapes me right now. The treatment for it is some brewers yeast in their food.

Where can I find brewers yeast? And do I just sprinkle it on pellets or should I mix it into her formula?

 

[waterfaller1]

You can get brewers yeast at the health food store. You can sprinkle it on wet foods, fruits, or mix it into mash, formula.. It will go wasted over dry food.
It's called coprophagia.

 

[BraveheartDogs]

They can be healthy for quite a while even though they are lacking something. There's a name for what she does but it escapes me right now. The treatment for it is some brewers yeast in their food.

It's called Coprophagia when it's poop. It's called Pica when it includes other things.

 

[waterfaller1]

Just spoke with a woman who has bred macaws 20+ years. She suggested that she would worm a bird that did what Maya is doing.

 

[Anne & Gang]

show s they are lacking in chloine....sprinkle brwer's yeast about 1/4 teaspoon on their food mix it in....our tiel Mitch used to do this it stopped..health food stores sell it..not expensive and keeps forever.