Duck Poop Color Chart: How To Identify Unhealthy Ducks?

Ducks poop is a mix of urine and feces which is a little solid with wetness. But it actually reveals a lot of facts about ducks’ health. So, I’ve come up with a duck poop color chart to let you identify what’s the condition of your ducks. Usually, it’s brown and grayish with white patches.

As a pet duck owner, you need to be alert and monitor changes in dropping color and consistency. If you see color changes, identify and do what you need to do for the waterfowl’s health.

However, this reading gonna give you everything you need to know about poop colors in detail.

12 Duck Poop Color Chart: How to Identify Ducks Health Condition With Stool Color?

Birds like ducks, geese, and even chickens poop a lot, and it’s quite normal for these messy creatures. But the problem is when you see differences in their droppings.

For example, the owner discovered mature muscovy drakes poop seems abnormal. The duck seems to be stressed, has poor feather condition, and stays alone. Well, clearly, he is sick, and it’s called urates (I’ll talk about it soon).

Again, the yellow color indicates bacterial infection or liver issues in the duck. It can be other people’s problem, so the vet’s suggestion is what they actually need. 

However, I got a list of poop colors and indications of what’s healthy and what’s not.

Ducks Stool Color Types And Components

You may not know that duck droppings have primarily 3 components:

1. Urates: It’s something with crystal urine, which is chalky white. Based on the MSD Vet Manual, Yellow fibrinous or purulent inflammatory exudates can be differentiated from urate deposits. Although urates in droppings are not a problem in ducks, excessive urates indicate kidney or dehydration problems.
2. Non-crystal Urine: You may notice cloudy white urine, which is combined from 2 types of urine. It’s also frequently visible when they drink a lot and eat diets with high water. However, don’t exclude bacterial diseases in this case.
3. Feces: A solid tubular part of duck droppings appears from the colon and consists of digested diets. It can be coiled, straight, or broken in shape. The droppings may vary based on the duck diet.

Some Other Facts About Ducks Poop Color

However, if you expect to know more clarified ideas about normal and abnormal droppings, check the given facts in your duck’s poop.

Healthy Droppings

• White cap and small droppings
• No wetness surrounded
• No intense smell
• Down feather attached in droppings

Unhealthy Droppings

• Large in size
• Intense bad smell
• Wetness in droppings
• Bulky and oily
• Discolored poop

Detailed Facts About 12 Different Colors Poops

So, I just shared what’s normal and what type of ducks poop has problems. Now, I am gonna detail everything to give a clear understanding.

1. Brown Poop:

• Brown gray or deep brown poops are regular.
• A result of regular diet like grains, insects, and other foods.

2. Black Poop:

• Tar-like or black poop indicates internal bleeding due to potential internal injury. We suspect digested blood in duck stool.
• Alarming poop color when ducks consume soil or dirt.
• Fruits like blackberries or blueberries can cause black droppings.
• Black gooey poop means bacteria like Enterobacter in avians.

3. White Poop

• White color components or swirls in duck poops are basically urates, as I said earlier. 
• It’s normal and developed by the kidney.
• It can ensure ducks have a healthy, balanced diet.
• A high protein diet contains purines, and it contributes to uric acid levels in duck droppings.
• Sometimes, there is an issue where the white color covers almost two-thirds of the poop’s volume.

4. Green Poop

• Greenish brown is the most common type of poop in poultry ducks and ducklings. 
• Actually, it happens for their green vegetation diets like grass, aquatic plants, and algae.
• Potentially cause green poop due to infection. It can be detected if you see them having lethargy or lack of appetite.
• Bright green, nearly fluorescent, or yellowish green poop signals ducks are having poisons.
• Sometimes, the liver issues or immediately hatches hen may have bright green poop.

5. Yellow Poop

• Ducks yellow poop often show liver disease or anorexia.
• Yellow poop can come due to yellowish vegetables as well.
• Rarely, hepatitis can cause yellow poop.
• On occasion, yellow poop can come due to infection or duck virus called enteritis.

6. Orange Poop

• Orange droppings come primarily due to diets like cantaloupe, pumpkins, or carrots.
• Common and no issues with such color of poop.

7. Pink Poop

• Ducks or geese may have pink poop because they eat watermelon, beetroot, or pink color natural diets.
• Pink poop and diarrhea can also happen due to excessive consumption of pink fruits or veggies.

8. Watery Poop

• Watery poop comes in due to excessive consumption of water.
• If it’s watery droppings with yellow to greenish or greyish type, it’s possibly the chlamydophilia.
• Having diarrhea due to bacterial infections may cause watery poop.
• Food poisoning is another culprit behind this type of droppings.
• Some watery diets can cause watery poop.
• Environmental changes, temperature fluctuation, or even biological alteration can cause watery duck poop as well.

9. Blood In Poop

• Red blood and black blood in poop are almost the same in some cases.
• Blood color poop indicates internal bleeding, which looks like black blood.
• We consider the blood as digested blood in stool, as I said earlier.
• Such type of blood also indicates damaged intestinal linings or when ducks have cocci bacteria.

10. Foamy Poop

• Mucus or foam is more likely the urine in ducks’ poop, where all urine develops from the anus that looks foamy white.
• Foamy poops are a clear sign of bacterial infection in ducks.
• It’s another tell-tale sign of cocci bacteria in ducks.

11. Worms In Poop

• Intestinal parasites are the reason behind worms in poops.
• Parasites in their digestive system and larvae or eggs get excreted in ducks’ feces and come in their poops.
• You may notice tapeworms, flatworms, mealworms, or roundworms, and mostly the coccidia protozoa in ducks’ poop.

12. Dark Metallic Poop

• When ducks are having health issues, they drop metallic poop.
• An indication of mineral deficiency and when ducks have infection.

Why Do Ducks Have Unhealthy Poops?

Although I mentioned, here is a blacklisted points that usually cause unhealthy duck poops.

• Diets Moving Through Intestine: If foods or diets move through the intestine too fast.
• Diet Changes: Sudden changes in pet ducks’ diet can cause unhealthy poop.
• Multicolor Fruits And Vegetables: Eating different colorful fruits and veggies can change the poop color. But having too much of this is not healthy.
• Parasites: Sometimes, tiny bugs called parasites, like giardia, can infect the belly and make the poop watery or loose. That’s not good and needs attention.
• Bacteria And Infection: Most bird species can have bacteria or viruses that cause unhealthy poops, as I discussed above.
• Liver Disease: Gallbladder or liver problems also cause different unhealthy poop colors in ducks.
• Internal Bleeding: Ducks do have internal bleeding that also causes the problem.
• Consuming Toxic Elements: Ducks may consume toxic elements or diets from outside. As they’re foragers, they’re at high risk until you monitor them.

Recommended Article: Common Diseases Ducks Get

What Does Healthy Duck Poop Look Like?

You may have seen duck poop pictures all over the internet but don’t understand what it means. So, I’ve covered a detailed facts about ducks poop. Have a look!

• A healthy duck poop usually comes in with solid feces and white urates, as I said before. More sharply, the feces are dark brown, and the urates obviously should be white or off-white.
• Normal and healthy droppings hold the shape and are not runny.
• You won’t have any extremely bad smell, as normal poop usually has minimal odor.
• There will be no water in it and not even rock harder.
• The urates primarily have a chalky texture, which is normal.

What Can You Do For Unhealthy Droppings Of Ducks?

Except for the normal poops, ducks may have unhealthy droppings, as we discovered today by checking the duck poop color chart. So, I thought I would give you some advice to bring them back to their regular potty life. 

But for your kind information, you cannot potty train ducks. Whether they’re fit or sick, they’ll mess things up with poops for sure. Whatever!

Take a look at the advice you can follow when you see ducks having severe health issues and problematic poop color.

1. Consulting a vet is the best and fastest solution to give the duck a curable treatment. They’ll possibly offer medications for parasites or infections.
2. You can keep the duck away from others to give extra care.
3. Ensure a clean habitat with fresh water to keep them away from contamination. As worms or parasites can enter and cause awkward and unhealthy droppings.
4. Always offer a balanced diet. Overfeeding is always a bad idea that can cause diarrhea or discoloration in ducks poop.
5. Always monitor what they consume, and when they’re having poops with problematic color, do proper care according to the vet’s instructions.

Related Readings:

• Why Is My Duck Limping
• Treating Duck Egg Binding
• Does Duck Have Salmonella

FAQs

Don’t panic if you see ducks having different color poops. However, the frequently asked queries are given to help you out based on the duck poop color chart.

Bottom Line

So, you’ve checked the duck poop color chart, and now you know the distinguished poop color. Consider brown, white, green, yellow, orange, and pink poop color as normal, which mostly happens for diets ducks consume. But the rest of them are risky and need vet care to be cured.

Commonly, ducks have watery poop or diarrhea that needs extra care. So, as a duck owner, regularly check their poop quality, type, and determine whether it’s normal or not. I don’t think you won’t have to face any trouble as I mentioned almost any sort of poop color and their impacts.

Sources & References:

• https://www.msdvetmanual.com/poultry/miscellaneous-conditions-of-poultry/urate-deposition-gout-in-poultry
• https://avianmedicine.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/33.pdf
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8757670/