With the popularity of keeping birds as pets continuing to grow as well as the number of people who feed the wild birds in their local area also increasing, we constantly see questions about the various ailments that birds can suffer from.
One of the more common questions that we have noticed people asking about recently is yellow bird poop along with what causes it as well as how to treat it.
With so many people reaching out and asking various questions about yellow bird poop, we wanted to publish our own dedicated article to try and explain a few things.
This is mainly due to seeing so many people on social media incorrectly say that yellow bird poop is due to the bird eating yellow food.
Our hope is that we will be able to help our readers better understand what causes yellow poop in birds as well as the various things that you are able to do to correct the issue.
We have added our table of contents below to make our article as easy to navigate as possible so the majority of people should be able to easily skip to specific sections without issue.
What Causes Yellow Bird Poop?
Yellow bird poop is usually caused by a build up of bile in the stomach of the bird due to a lack of food being consumed resulting in the poop of the bird turning yellow.
Two less common causes of yellow bird poop are liver disease and bacterial infections but the majority of the time, it is due to a lack of food in the birds diet.
Although very rare in most areas, there are also a number of parasites that can turn a birds poop yellow in some situations but you will usually be able to see the parasitic worms in the birds yellow poop making it easy to identify this as the cause.
Most of these parasites are local to Africa or South America though so are rare in the areas where the majority of our readers live so it is unlikely that this will be the cause.
Even rarer than that is some bright yellow food dyes that are in some foods designed for humans but these should never be given to birds anyway.
Think of brightly colored candy but the bird’s short digestional tract can struggle to digest the yellow dye in the candy prior to pooping it our but this is very rare and will usually be more and a bright, unnatural yellow color.
How To Stop Yellow Bird Poop!
The easiest way to treat the main cause of yellow bird poop in birds is to simply feed the bird a suitable food.
This will cause the excess bile in the bird’s stomach causing the yellow poop to be used up digesting the food and turn the birds poop back to the normal white.
If you are feeding wild birds with yellow poop then bread can be used as a food source as the birds will also eat other food sources to help get vitamins and minerals into their diet.
If you have a pet bird with yellow poop then you really should be trying to use a nutritionally complete bird food as they are cheap and offer plenty of vitamins and minerals in addition to energy.
In the winter months where food is hard to find for wild birds, trying to feed them an actual bird food product rather than bread is also well worth it due to the nutritional boost it offers.
If the bird has yellow poop due to a bacterial infection then you may be able to get treatments from a veterinarian to help it but this is difficult for wild birds.
If it is your pet bird then you can book a video call with a veterinarian to have them go over your bird and offer you specific advice on what you should be doing.
If the bird has yellow bird poop due to liver disease or any other issues with its liver then it can be difficult to try and treat with some of the conditions being untreatable in many situations but thankfully, liver issues are the rarest of the three common causes of yellow bird poop.
Should You Be Worried About Yellow Bird Poop?
Most people should not be worried about yellow bird poop from their pet bird as it can be common if the bird is not eating enough or is eating a new type of food.
Over the course of a few days of having enough food in its diet, the bile in its stomach will usually normalize and its poop will go back to normal.
If your bird has yellow poop due to having a bacterial infection then you should usually seek assistance from a veterinarian as soon as possible.
The majority of the time, you can treat bacterial infections that cause yellow bird poop if you catch them early enough but different types of bacteria can require different treatments so you usually need a vet to assess your bird and offer the correct treatment but most of the time, there is no need to worry and your bird will be fine.
Liver disease and the various other issues with the liver are the issues that you usually have to worry about in your bird as they are harder to treat with some of them being untreatable even with prescription medication.
Getting advice from a veterinarian is the best course of action if you suspect that your bird may have yellow bird poop due to liver disease but the outlook for the bird is usually not as bright as the other two main issues.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over the causes and treatments of yellow bird poop to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand how you should be going about trying to treat yellow bird poop in your bird and thankfully, the most common reason by far is simply excess bile being produced due to a lack of food. This is very simple to treat in the vast majority of cases these days and you should easily be able to treat the issue by simply providing the bird with enough, nutritious food.
