She's a poop eater!

[flynntheduck]

My 4.5 week old buff is always eating poop. Her own poop and the other duck's poop. Is this normal? My other duck will sometimes eat it when they are having a swim but my buff eats it all the time. It is gross! Should I be concerned?

 

[chooks4life]

It's not normal... Some ingestion of poop occasionally is, but constant is not.

It puts them at a high risk of worm infestation, disease infections, etc.

Some possible reasons are: her gut is not healthy (antibiotic use can do that) and she is trying to restock her probiotic microorganisms via the easiest way she can access the appropriate species: poop from a healthier animal.

She might be very deficient in something, and poop is supplying it where the diet fails.

She might be neurotic, as sometimes poop eating is a symptom of mental problems, but generally it's more likely to occur to non avian species.

I'd worm her and try to supplement her nutrition to see if that manages the issue. A longterm deficit in nutrition can take a year or more to fix though so if the results aren't instant it doesn't necessarily mean it's not working.

Best wishes with that.

 

[flynntheduck]

It's not normal... Some ingestion of poop occasionally is, but constant is not.

It puts them at a high risk of worm infestation, disease infections, etc.

Some possible reasons are: her gut is not healthy (antibiotic use can do that) and she is trying to restock her probiotic microorganisms via the easiest way she can access the appropriate species: poop from a healthier animal.

She might be very deficient in something, and poop is supplying it where the diet fails.

She might be neurotic, as sometimes poop eating is a symptom of mental problems, but generally it's more likely to occur to non avian species.

I'd worm her and try to supplement her nutrition to see if that manages the issue. A longterm deficit in nutrition can take a year or more to fix though so if the results aren't instant it doesn't necessarily mean it's not working.

Best wishes with that.

she is 4.5 weeks old and appears totally healthy. She is on Dumor chick starter/grower has constant access to food and water. They go outside and get to forage every day with supervision. They get peas also. I'm not sure what she could be lacking at such a young age. I am also doing niacin in their water.

 

[flynntheduck]

Bumping for more opinions. Thanks!

 

[chooks4life]

It's possibly neurosis or some form of stereotypy. Abnormal behaviors are a response to an abnormal environment but unfortunately it's not as simple to fix as putting them in a better environment, because they can end up showing their parent's neuroses even in the equivalent of their paradise, lol.

Friendly suggestion: instead of bumping just give an update, apparently there are rules against bumping on this site.

Quote:

she is 4.5 weeks old and appears totally healthy. She is on Dumor chick starter/grower has constant access to food and water. They go outside and get to forage every day with supervision. They get peas also. I'm not sure what she could be lacking at such a young age. I am also doing niacin in their water.

Does she have enough stimulation? Is she bored, do you think? Does she play with the others, have objects to walk behind which block view of the rest of the four walls of her cage, or are you the most exciting thing that happens in her day asides from freeranging? The foraging should be enough theoretically, it's certainly much better than no foraging, but unfortunately it's often just not enough. Some breeds and some individuals just need more. Like a chihuahua compared to a working dog breed, when housed in a small suburban backyard or the house itself. Some will develop abnormal behaviors to cope with boredom, especially if their parents came from more stimulating environments, whereas those who were for example bred in puppy mills will cope better with boredom though they'd come with neuroses already inherited and active in many cases due to the sheer lack of stimulation. Many poultry are the equivalent of puppy mill dogs, it's no coincidence the most intensively caged and their closest descendents have the most neuroses and behavioral disorders of all.

Even if everything in the diet is great, it's possible she's just one of those who has some problem preventing her from retaining or synthesizing or absorbing or processing everything she needs from what she takes in, in which case the poop eating would be her lifeline and maybe you're better off just watching her health a bit more closely and ignoring the poop eating.

Best wishes.

 

[flynntheduck]

Hmmmmmm I never thought of boredom. They have pretty much outgrown their brooder. She does enjoy goofing off with the other birds. When she is outside she doesn't eat poop. Just in the brooder or bathtub/kiddy pool. We finally got the coop finished so today they spent the day outside. They loved it. I brought them back in for night though. I am paranoid about the cold. It's really not *that* cold high 40's low 50's at night but I am not sure if that is ok or not. I'm hoping to transition them to staying out at night by this weekend. Hopefully just having more space will help her. She is the queen of the flock (2 ducks 2 chicks) and everyone follows her around and she enjoys running all over and getting dirty. I will continue to keep an eye on her. Thanks! And I did not know that about the bumping. Sorry! Thanks for letting me know!

 

[chooks4life]

Hmmmmmm I never thought of boredom. They have pretty much outgrown their brooder. She does enjoy goofing off with the other birds. When she is outside she doesn't eat poop. Just in the brooder or bathtub/kiddy pool. We finally got the coop finished so today they spent the day outside. They loved it. I brought them back in for night though. I am paranoid about the cold. It's really not *that* cold high 40's low 50's at night but I am not sure if that is ok or not. I'm hoping to transition them to staying out at night by this weekend. Hopefully just having more space will help her. She is the queen of the flock (2 ducks 2 chicks) and everyone follows her around and she enjoys running all over and getting dirty. I will continue to keep an eye on her. Thanks! And I did not know that about the bumping. Sorry! Thanks for letting me know!

No need to apologize for the bumping, lol,all good!

Interesting that she's the alpha yet eats poop. I've only ever heard of that in subordinate animals, which is odd now I think of it...

But it does sound like boredom might be it, I thought she was eating poop outside the coop as well, not just inside it.

Maybe she just wants a diet very high in greens, so when she eats their poop inside the cage she's getting their second hand fiber and chlorophyll? Random idea.

Best wishes.

 

[flynntheduck]

No need to apologize for the bumping, lol,all good!

Interesting that she's the alpha yet eats poop. I've only ever heard of that in subordinate animals, which is odd now I think of it...

But it does sound like boredom might be it, I thought she was eating poop outside the coop as well, not just inside it.

Maybe she just wants a diet very high in greens, so when she eats their poop inside the cage she's getting their second hand fiber and chlorophyll? Random idea.

Best wishes.

Yes she definately is top duck. And she loves greens. A bit more so than the others. She is also a bit bigger than my Rouen/mallard (not sure which yet) though they are the same age. So maybe she just needs more something!

 

[andreacroyle]

It's not normal... Some ingestion of poop occasionally is, but constant is not.

It puts them at a high risk of worm infestation, disease infections, etc.

Some possible reasons are: her gut is not healthy (antibiotic use can do that) and she is trying to restock her probiotic microorganisms via the easiest way she can access the appropriate species: poop from a healthier animal.

She might be very deficient in something, and poop is supplying it where the diet fails.

She might be neurotic, as sometimes poop eating is a symptom of mental problems, but generally it's more likely to occur to non avian species.

I'd worm her and try to supplement her nutrition to see if that manages the issue. A longterm deficit in nutrition can take a year or more to fix though so if the results aren't instant it doesn't necessarily mean it's not working.

Best wishes with that.

I love your recommendations and this post. I didnt know that this issue happened in ducks. I also didnt know that they could "restock" on microorganisms through another healthy animals poo. That is very interesting. My injured duck is on probios probiotics. i have no idea if this is a good brand for ducks (label says exotic birds), but I wanted to get him on probiotics because he has been on antibiotics for the past 2 weeks.

 

[andreacroyle]

she is 4.5 weeks old and appears totally healthy. She is on Dumor chick starter/grower has constant access to food and water. They go outside and get to forage every day with supervision. They get peas also. I'm not sure what she could be lacking at such a young age. I am also doing niacin in their water.

I was on the phone talking to purina today. purina manufactures dumor and mazuri. the customer service lady said that the dumor products are basically a generic feed and they arent as well formulated for ducks.