# Holding in poop? Hormonal?



## Schubird (Jun 12, 2015)

Schubert is such a problem bird when it comes to his poops.

So lately, the past few days, Schubert hasn't seemed to be pooping in his cage. I first noticed it Tuesday morning when I saw no fresh poop in his cage in the morning. I left for work and my boyfriend told me he let him out of the cage when he got home and he let out a huge poop. When I got home a few hours later, we let Schubert out again and all evening he had normal poo. 

Yesterday I was off work so I had him out all day and had no problems since he was pooping while being out.

Today I had work from 7am to 3pm and once again, noticed no poop. I let him out and he went by the TV where he let out three large poops with a slight odor within ten minutes. Concerned I hovered nearby to see where this was going, but after those three he now has normal, non-smelly poop again. 

Now, I want to say that I'm a good 99.8% sure Schubert is a boy. He's about a year and a half, all of his striped and spotted feathers have molted out a few times and have grown in solid each time, so even though he's a cinnamon split with pied, I would assume the lack of any bars or spots, despite them being there when he was a baby, would signal male. He's also very vocal, picks up songs quickly, talks, heartwings, etc.

But for about a week now he's been sitting at the bottom of the cage, usually at night before bed, where he still sleeps up on his pinata. It's always in one bottom corner, and he backs up really far so his tail is up in the air if I call to him, he immediately chirps and picks himself up and excitedly runs towards the sound of my voice. I've caught him masturbating on perches a few times this week as well. 

So is Schubert nesting? And not wanting to poop in his (giant as heck) "nest" cage? Or is there something more serious going on? The three big smelly poops made me more concerned today, but how he's exploring the TV stand again and making normal poop...


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Definitely sounds like he's nesting. Whatever that is at the bottom of the cage probably needs to go. I'd also extend the amount of darkness he gets daily to help reduce his hormones.


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