How Often do Conures Poop? 5 Things to Consider

Conures are quite unique birds. They are bold, highly inquisitive, and can be really playful, affectionate, and engaging. Even so, conures tend to be susceptible to some intestinal and digestive issues.

Owners these birds, thus, need to be extremely wary of the feces. Now, conures usually defecate once or twice every hour. Other conures can even poop every 15 to 30 minutes. It really all depends on your bird’s diet and size.

Take note that conure droppings don’t smell. And the feces appeared soft but solid. What’s more, conure fecal matter can be straight, broken up into small, tube-shaped pieces, or coiled.

Can Conures Have Diarrhea?

Yes, conures tend to get diarrhea from time to time. And what causes diarrhea in conures? It can be anything from parasites, bacterial infections, intestinal disease, nutritional deficiency, toxic food, etc.

But not all watery stools mean your conure is having diarrhea. It’s normal for conure and other birds to excrete watery tools (without any white) when they drink lots of water. If anything, a conure’s dropping shouldn’t be solid.

Rather, it should have a fair liquid amount, considering that a bird’s anatomy has a mechanism to expel solid and liquid wastes together, instead of separately.

As Greg Burkett, DVM, owner of the Birdie Boutique (Dunham N.C.) and board-certified avian veterinarian notes, “conure poop has three components: a white portion, which are the urates coming from the kidneys; a green portion, which are the feces coming from the intestines; and a liquid portion, which is urine emanating from the kidneys“.

So if your conure is producing a soft, formless mass with a whitish component, then it’s probably experiencing diarrhea. With that said, you can treat conure diarrhea in the following ways:

– Visit the Vet for Medication

If you suspect your bird to have contracted diarrhea, it best to first visit your vet with a fecal sample, especially if the symptoms don’t subside in 24 hours. An avian veterinarian will help you determine the exact cause of diarrhea, which is vital for your conure’s treatment.

Once the vet confirms the issue, he or she will administer oral drugs such as antibiotics to get rid of the problem.

– Adjust the Conure’s Diet

Avoid giving your conure fruits or vegetables for at least a day. If anything, these foods have fibers that can make diarrhea in conures and other bird species worse.

Cutting off fruits and vegetables from your conure’s diet will help settle its stomach and ultimately stop the diarrhea.

On top of this, you should also:

• Give your conure lots of freshwater- To reduce dehydration.
• Provide enriched foods- just in case the diarrhea is as a result of nutritional deficiency.

– Disinfect the Conure Cage

Sometimes, diarrhea in conures may come about because of a dirty cage. Its, thus, best to always keep your pet’s cage free of debris, dirt, and droppings.

You can thoroughly clean the cage by vacuuming its bottom for debris or food, wiping out any droppings, and washing surfaces with soapy, warm water.

What’s more, check with the manufacturer of your conure’s cage and toys to figure out the lead content in these products. Lead poisoning can easily cause diarrhea.

Diarrhoea can also appear as a symptom of a different health issue, especially when accompanied by secondary symptoms like blood in the feces, listlessness, and feather loss.

Take fungal infections, internal hernia, and roundworms for example. All these can cause diarrhea in conures and other parrots.

What Color Should Conure Poop Be?

Despite conure feces having mostly whitish, greenish, and liquid clear components, dropping consistency and color can vary.

Experts consider a wide range of colors, from deep purple to bright orange to be healthy colors of conure poop. Why? The food dye and natural colors in whatever your pet eats will naturally color their dropping.

Most of the time, conure feces appear dark green or dark brown, depending on whether what forms the staple diet between pellets and seeds. Here’s what other colors of a conure poop mean:

• Rust or Red Colored Droppings – If you feed your conure red peppers, expect his poop to appear red in color. It may even look like pure blood. So don’t panic. Red droppings don’t necessarily mean your conure is sickly.
• Black Stool – Unless your conure has eaten black or red berries lately, its poop shouldn’t appear black. Partially digested blood in the stool is what makes the stool appear black, tarry, and sticky. If your bird is pooping black stool continuously for several days, then it’s likely he’s suffering lower intestine or upper GI tract bleeding.
• Brown Droppings – Conures will excrete brown droppings whenever they eat orange and red colored foods. Though brown dropping can also mean your conure is suffering from an intestinal tract infection, which is quite common in birds.
• Green Colored Stool – If you feed your conure a diet of legumes, broccoli, spinach, kale, or any other leafy greens, the stool is likely to turn green. Remember, dark green is a normal, healthy poop color when it comes to conures. But if the stool appears lime/ light green colored, your bird may be having kidney issues.

How to Stop your Bird from Pooping Everywhere?

Bird enthusiasts will tell you, you must get used to poop. Pet birds are experts at pooping in the most unlikely places, and especially on their owners. But that doesn’t mean you can’t stop your conure from pooping everywhere.

To stop from pooping anywhere, take the time to house train him. You’ve probably heard of house training dogs, cats, and even rabbits before. Now, as with all these other animals, house training a bird requires patience, consistency, commitment, and positive reinforcement.

You see, what you’re doing with house training is basically teaching your bird to “poop” on command. Keep in mind that older birds are harder to train than younger birds.

Can You Potty Train Your Conure?

As aforementioned, you can house train your conure to stop its ‘bad’ habits. Part of this includes potty training. In fact, most bird enthusiasts use potty training and house training interchangeably to mean the same thing.

Use these simple steps to potty train your conure in the shortest time possible:

– Watch out for Cues

Although it’s highly individual, most conures exhibit a behavior change whenever they are about to relieve themselves. It may be anything from the movement of the tail to crouching, fluffing up feathers, stepping backwards, etc.

Watching and identifying your bird’s specific cues will help you figure out its natural bathroom schedule.

– Find Places to Go

Once you know after how lomh your bird relieves itself, the next step is to choose where you want it to poop. A garbage can, a newspaper piece, a cage liner, or even the bird’s cage itself will be ideal. Whatever spot you choose, stick with it so that your bird can get used to it.

The trick is to watch out for when your bird wants to poop, then quickly move it to the designated ‘poop’ area. Repeat this a few times daily and your bird will get used to pooping in that particular spot.

– Offer Praise and Rewards

Every time your conure relieves itself at the spot you want it to, affirm the behavior by praising it.

With plenty of positive reinforcement as well as persistence, many conures readily take to potty training and quickly learn that relieving themselves on furniture or humans is “bad” behaviour.

Do Conures Fart or Pee?

No, conures don’t fart. One theory why conure and other birds can’t fart is that they digest their foods faster. Food simply doesn’t sit in their gastrointestinal tract long enough to ferment and form fart/ gas.

Conures also don’t pee. Unlike humans who excrete nitrogenous waste by urinating, conures transform their waste into uric acid. This acid is then mixed with solid waste (from the intestines) and together, they move down the same chute, also known as the cloaca.

Wrapping Up

You’ve heard this before. A person’s eyes are the window to his or her soul. But what you’ve not heard is, a bird’s fecal matter is the window to its health status.

Keep an eye for any changes in your conure’s poop. How, when, and what he poops will let you know what’s happening with his internal mechanism. If you see anything unusual for a while, get in touch with your vet. It may save your pet’s life!