I just cleaned out my cages this morning and a hen that is sitting on 5 eggs proceded to eat her big poop..... :thumbs_up:

 

Changed the paper in her cage again to get rid of it, but why on earth is she doing this??

 

They have a seed mix, daily with fresh water, egg and biscuit one day then a mix of shredded, Broccoli, beetroot, carrott and corn the next, I alternate this....Am I not giving her something she needs?

This is not abnormal behaviour...relax.

 

I do not know if it is due to buird receiving differen nutrients from droppings or what, someone more experienced than me wil tell you, but this is not abnormal behaviour.

 

This is one reason why it is extremely important to quarnatine sick birds. Birds will pass on sickness to other birds in their droppings.

Birds do get something from their droppings. Whether its just to neutralise their gut bacteria or what I dont know. But you will see if you closely observe parents feeding their babies....they eat some of their droppings before going into the nest to feed their babies too.

okay thanks Dave and Kaz....

okay thanks Dave and Kaz....

 

do they have iodine bell and calcium bell???

It is perfectly normal and is termed "Coprophagia".

 

The practice in some animals is to passon benefical bacteria to young in order for them to process certain toxins in food. Koala is a good example here.

Rabbits poop and then that dropping is consumed again in order to gain maximum nutrional bebefit from the food they eat. This is why they do so well in this land of ours.

 

Some nutrients must go through the digstive tract at least twice in order for the correct assimilation. You could say the first pass through is the preparation phase and the second pass through is the absorbtion phase.

 

Pretty much most animals on the planet do it, even humans. Usually though when a human is involved it is generally a child exploring it's bodily functions.

RIP - you are a wonderful source of knowledge. It is my own fault really. I should not read and try to consume lunch at the same time :thumbs_up:

A well known experienced breeder told me a couple of weeks ago that he likes to do the deep litter breeding, meaning everything stays in the breeding box until the round is finished, but he does take out the big build up of droppings but all the other little droppings stay there he said it is beneficial to the birds because after a couple of weeks of drying the droppings are a good source of vitamin D when digested by the birds.

I don't know if this is true but it is what he believes

not sure about the vd bit but i do bit of both

clean cages till all poo bum gone then

after mums poo back to normal i just tip seed contaner in untill the tray fills up i take all veggies and what not out daily

but unless water has leeched or split i leave bottom litter in as i feel it gets the birds immunity up

eg like a child eating dirt (poo haha thats funny rip true i know but funny ) but i only let it get to the wire so i can still clean tray if needed babys can pick throw to the fill with out probs they learn to eat quicker to this way like with the millet in nest :rofl:

Gee! if I'd known this I could have saved myself a lot of scraping to get rid of the stuff.Well we live and learn. l.o.l :rofl:

Gee! if I'd known this I could have saved myself a lot of scraping to get rid of the stuff.Well we live and learn. l.o.l

 

ha! seconded...