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Excessive urine can mean disorders of the kidney, liver or pancreas, and blood in the urine may be caused by poisoning or stress. A yellowish urine may mean a liver disease, while a dull, green-colored urine could mean Psittacosis.

Increased. Changes in a bird's routine can increase the need for more food, just as it would in a human. But, it can also be a symptom of diabetes. When accompanied with other signs, like weight loss, it could mean parasites, or liver or intestinal problems.

Underweight. Usually an indicator that your bird is not receiving sufficient calories. Its food intake should be reviewed to make sure it has the right content, and that it matches the bird's activity levels. Upsetting the bird's normal routine can lead to a loss of appetite and subsequent weight loss, as will beak problems. Continued loss of appetite and accompanying loss of weight can be indications of diabetes, liver or kidney diseases. If you bird is so underweight as to cause you concern; immediately take it to your vet.

Liver disease in the UK could increase due to the country's rising level of obesity, it has been claimed.

The warning comes from the British Liver Trust (BLT), which points out that a combination of an increasingly poor diet and greater alcohol consumption is known to add to the risk of a diseased liver.

Obesity can help aid the progress from fatty liver to fibrosis, cirrhosis and cancer, the charity cautions.

Alison Rogers, chief executive of BLT, said: "While much of the recent increase in liver disease has been alcohol related a major contributory factor is the nature and quantity of food we are eating."

She called the illness a "silent killer" because it does not manifest symptoms "until the liver is severely damaged".

The liver serves over 500 functions in the human body, including processing digested food, storing vitamins, controlling the level of fats and glucose in the blood and fighting infections.

Liver Disease

When a bird has fatty liver disease, his liver is unable to do its job. This causes many problems for the bird. Symptoms may include fluffiness, weight loss, excessive urine (polyuria), pigmented urine (biliverdinuria), and labored breathing. There are a variety of causes for liver disease, including infectious diseases such as salmonella and e.coli; vitamin deficiency is also correlated. It is a very serious problem, but it can be treated -- with help from your veterinarian.

A bird's urates, the white part of droppings, should always be white. Any change in the color of urates to yellow or green means that your bird is sick and needs to be taken to an avian vet. Yellow urates can be a sign of kidney disease.A bird's urine should always be clear and colorless. If a color change is noticed in the urine, your bird is sick and needs to be taken to an avian vet. Sometimes birds that are frightened, feeling stressed, have eaten a large quantity of watery vegetables or have swallowed a large amount of water while bathing, will produce watery droppings. This is an excess of urine and it's called polyuria. It's should be temporary and only last a day or two. If it lasts more than 2 days it's considered chronic. Chronic polyuria is not normal and can be a symptom of diabetes, liver/kidney disease, infection or disease. If your bird has watery droppings for more than 2 days, it needs to be taken to an avian vet. True diarrhea looks like splattered pea soup. Diarrhea is different than watery droppings and it means that your bird is sick. Sick birds need to be taken to avian vets immediately.

Dan writes:
My parrot needed antibiotics because it was drinking a lot of water and was urinating heavy amounts of water. The antibiotics helped, but there was elevation of the serum phosphorus and uric acid. My question is what is the best way to prevent the problem from returning? For example, would it help if I reduced the protein in the diet? Are there medicines that would help prevent a return of the problem? What foods would be best to give and what would be best to AVOID. The parrot is about seven years old and is otherwise well.

Dear Dan,
From the limited amount of information that you have provided, it appears that your parrot had a kidney infection. This I surmise, since I do not know what tests were performed on the bird, what the results were, diet of the bird, or conditions under which the bird is kept.

Any time a bird has a uric acid elevation, this means kidney involvement or failure, depending on the levels. The symptoms of drinking and urinating excessively also points to a kidney problem., although there are many diseases of birds that result in these symptoms. Also with your follow up e-mail saying that the uric acid levels, and phosphorus were now back to normal with the use of antibiotics, the most probable diagnosis is infectious nephritis.

In cases of infectious nephritis (kidney infections), it is advisable to use antibiotics, and may need other medications such as allopurinol or colchicine. These drugs help to reduce the levels of uric acid and in cases of kidney failure are used long term.

Diet in the bird usually does not play a big part in treatment of temporary kidney problems, but may need to be addressed if the patient is experiencing kidney failure. Roudybush has a kidney diet for birds that some clients use for this purpose.

In your case, I believe that keeping him on his current diet would be sufficient providing it is a healthy one. Please check with your veterinarian on specific contents and recommendations.

Earnest Jacques, DVM
Ellicott City, Md

Overgrown beak: Either the upper or lower beak may overgrow, though it is far more common for the upper beak to do so. For some normal birds, regular beak trimming is necessary. Other birds may keep their beaks in proper form through eating a hard diet, grooming, climbing, chewing on toys, and rubbing the beak on a slightly abrasive surface. An overgrown beak can be the result of health problems including trauma, developmental abnormalities, nutritional imbalances, polyomavirus-like infection (finches), or liver disease (especially in budgies).

Birds with hepatic lipidosis generally have a sudden loss of appetite, are lethargic, and depressed. Many are overweight and the liver is enlarged due to the additional storage of fat. This results in a distended abdomen and difficulty breathing. They may have diarrhea and abnormal droppings (green in color). Birds may have poor feather quality. If the liver function is greatly decreased, birds may develop central nervous system signs such as seizures, loss of balance, and muscle tremors. Budgies may have overgrown, soft beaks. Some birds with hepatic lipidosis may develop few signs before they die suddenly.

Liver disease, and other medical conditions can result in overgrown beaks, and beak tumors. Not only must you treat the beak, but you must treat the cause in order to correct this condition. Parrots with overgrown beaks can die from starvation easily.

luvthembirds wrote:I totally know that I need to be responsible for a bird. I don't want to bring home a bird(like a caique) and find out it is not the right bird for me, that's why I'm asking people and posting on this forum and i don't have a bird yet. I do like caiques but i feel I need to stick with a little less, well what's the word, energy in a bird. Before I try to own a bird like a caique, I need some experience. I'm sorry for not posting. I was on a field trip for six days then got stuck at a hotle/airport for the seventh. I am looking into Grey cheek parakeets, i think that's what their called.