We as humans know that eating poop is a no-no, eating it can introduce bacteria into your system and possibly affect your health in a variety of very negative ways.
But certain animals in the animal kingdom don’t have the same experience.
Animals such as rabbits, domesticated dogs, beetles and chimpanzees eat her own poop for a variety of reasons from time to time, and so do mother birds with their young. So why do mother birds eat their babies poop?
Mother birds, and father birds for that matter, eat their babies poop because the substance contains a good amount of nutrients. Baby birds aren’t able to digest the food given to them very well and thus some of those nutrients come out in the poop. Parents eat this to get the nutrients.
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Why do mother birds eat their babies poop?
When a newborn baby bird wants to poop, it turns its rear end to any parent available in the nest.
It then releases a white bag of poop covered in mucous – a fecal sac. Its mom or dad eats the feces because the substance contains lots of nutrients.
This activity also keeps the nest, and the bird’s general living conditions, clean.
Hatchlings cannot fully digest the food they eat, so they excrete most of the food their parents feed them.
However, it’s important to note that mother birds do not always eat their babies’ poop. As soon as the baby bird matures to a particular age, its parents stop snacking on its feces.
The parent bird collects the substance in its mouth as usual, but this time flies away to dispose of it.
What to do:
If you see this in the wild don’t be worried or alarmed, this is a normal occurrence. The parent bird won’t get sick.
If you’re raising birds and you see this happening, and you want it to stop, make sure that the animals get enough nutrient-rich foods to keep the adult from needing to get nutrients from its babies’ poop.
FAQ:
Do baby birds poop in the nest?
Studies have shown that baby birds poop in their nest a lot – this might be hard to believe as a bird’s nest is usually clean with no feces visible.
If you’ve ever looked into a bird’s nest and found no poop, the reason is that the bird’s parents have either eaten the baby bird’s poop or disposed of the waste outside the nest.
In the case of older babies, bluebirds and robins fly about 20 – 50 yards away from the nest and drop the poop sacs in flight.
Why do birds eat their babies?
While larger birds such as eagles and other raptors sometimes eat their babies, smaller birds do not eat their babies.
Birds like robins, canaries, bluebirds, and pigeons will kill their baby and push it out of the nest if they sense that it has developed an illness or infection.
Bird parents do not enjoy killing or eating their baby, but if it presents a risk to the nest and its siblings, it will leave the parents no choice.
Do birds mourn the loss of a baby?
Yes, birds mourn the loss of a baby.
However, not all birds exhibit this unusual behavior. For penguins, jays, pigeons, and other birds with emotional intelligence, a baby bird’s death makes them very sad.
These birds mourn the loss of a baby in almost the same way humans mourn the loss of a loved one.
What do mother birds do with dead babies?
When a baby bird dies in its nest, its mother either pushes it out of the nest, builds a new nest on it, or feeds on it.
While omnivore and herbivore birds will toss their dead baby out of the nest or ignore it until it dries out in the nest, carnivore birds like eagles, crows, hawks, vultures, and owls will eat the babies that die in the nest.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the mother bird, or father bird, does in fact eat the baby’s poop, this happens because the baby does not digest the food well enough and the nutrients stay behind in the poop. The parents eat the poop to get the nutrients.
A parent will also eat the baby if it is becoming a threat to the other babies in the nest. They will still mourn the loss of the baby. If the baby dies on its own the mother will push the baby out the nest.
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Can birds eat cashews? Do birds have emotions? Can birds eat hazelnuts? Can birds eat almond butter? What do birds think of humans? Do birds mourn the loss of a baby?