Why Do Pigeons Poop So Much – An In-Depth Analysis
Naturally, the more you feed, the more your pigeons poop. But it may not be the case always. Poops indicate a health condition. If your pigeons always poop so much, you better be cautious and find out the reasons.
So, why do pigeons poop so much? The very basic reason is its super-functional digestive system, along with its frequent eating habits and natural weight-loss characteristics. It may also be the reason for degraded health conditions and contaminated food consumption.
To provide you with substantial knowledge in this regard, we cover all aspects of pigeon pooping. Here, we discuss pigeons’ poop in terms of natural and unhealthy contexts.
Why Do Pigeons Poop So Much: Summary
Before we get into details, let’s look at the reasons why pigeons poop so much:
| Natural Causes | Other Causes |
| 1. It consumes a lot of food on a daily basis | 1. Degraded health conditions |
| 2. Its flight requires a light body weight and nature made it frequent poopers to maintain the standard body weight | 2. Contaminated food consumption |
| 3. Pigeons have a fast metabolism | |
| 4. They have a small stomach | |
| 5. Keep body heat at a standard |
Why Do Pigeons Poop So Much?
We’ve conducted a detailed analysis of their pooping characteristics. It includes examining physical characteristics and habits based on theoretical studies and observations.
Finally, we’ve identified reasons for pigeons’ excessive pooping, which we’ve categorized into two segments.
Natural Causes
In this section, we elaborate on the mentioned natural causes of the pigeons’ excessive pooping. Also, we look for a solution because the poop is destroying the overall impression of your establishment.
1. Pigeons Eat A Lot
Obviously, it’s natural. Pigeons inherited this characteristic by birth. They do not only eat foods provided by you but also consume foods available in their surroundings.
Their excessive eating habit is also closely related to humans’ core characteristics of acts of kindness toward the birds. It’s not only you but most probably every human who tries to please a cute and charming bird by providing some dry food like nuts, etc.
This context adds more sources of food for pigeons apart from natural sources. And pigeons are such birds that they don’t like to leave a single grain uneaten. The result is simple: the more it eats, the more it poos!
2. Maintaining Standard Body Weight
If you know the basics of aeronautics, you surely know that bird’s flight is empowered by the proportion of its weight and wing length. Yes, their size, shape, and wings’ and tails’ movements also matter.
However, as pigeons are heavy eaters by nature, it could make them unable to fly. Nature justified these traits by making them super poopers in order to limit this.
No matter how much food they consume, the digestive system extracts the associated nutrients and releases the wastes nearly on the spot. Here, the result is simple: they poop and they fly!
3. System of Rapid Metabolism
To keep it simple, here we avoid any sort of scientific term. Just remember, your pigeon’s earlier flight duration (20–30 minutes) is powered by carbohydrates, and after that, the flight seeks power from stored fats in its body.
This context is critical to understand. Pigeons are naturally characterized as not being overweight, and any sort of fat burn affects their health.
To resolve this issue, pigeons are forced to eat frequently because they have a faster digestive system. And this processes the food quickly to make the carbohydrates ready for their next flight. Result: They poop while eating; they poop just after finishing eating.
4. Small Stomach
A pigeon’s ideal size and shape are 30 cm to 37 cm in length and 22 cm to 33 cm in height. This is surely a small dimension. And logically, a pigeon’s stomach is tiny, validating every organ’s residence within this small body.
This context does not allow pigeons to keep the waste for a longer time, as it requires free space for upcoming foods to digest. In addition, from the stomach to the anal, the pathway is not complicated in pigeons.
So, pigeons eat, and the tiny stomach processes the food quickly (and makes them poop) to make room for the next shot.
5. Maintaining Body Heat
While flying and in cold weather, pigeons’ bodies fight against the loss of heat. As keeping the body temperature at a standard level is essential for survival, they restore a small amount of fat in the body.
The fat restoration process triggers more eating behavior in pigeons. Scientifically, a very small portion of food transforms into healthy fat and helps the body survive in low-heat conditions. As all those foods do not transform into fat, the rest becomes poop.
Other Causes
In this section, we discuss some other causes that make pigeons poop so much.
1. Degraded Health Condition
Well, pigeons eat too much and poop too much. But, as they roam around nearby locations like farming land, localities, etc., you might not notice their heavy pooping.
As a result, if your pigeon is in poor health, it will not fly and will remain in the house. As a result, that poop (dry or runny) becomes very visible to you, triggering an irritable situation.
2. Contaminated Food Consumption
Pigeons are fond of fresh grains; they used to eat those directly from the field. In this food consumption process, they cannot avoid eating contaminated foods (with pesticides, fertilizers, etc.). The associated contamination context forces them to poop more frequently than usual.
What You Can Do to Restrict the “Too Much Poop” Scenario
You cannot completely prohibit such activities, but you can limit them. Try the following:
- Install a larger cage (not a box, an ample netted area with boxes) in your backyard; this will allow free movement, and they will poop within the cage area.
- Allow them to fly free twice or thrice a week; this will restrict the damage to your home’s exterior while maintaining the birds’ good health.
FAQs
As per our observation, we picked some common questions regarding pigeons’ poop. And below are the answers.
Yes. Pigeons’ poop is toxic to humans but does not cause severe health hazards. If you have a degraded immune system or a certain allergy, pigeon poop can make you sick.
Yes, they pee, but the pee’s characteristics are not what you expect. The white-colored waters are pigeons’ pee.
Yes, pigeons can be potty trained. You can apply operant conditioning, but remember not to punish them physically. You should replace punishment with disappointment (not giving the reward, i.e., favorite food).
Final Thoughts
We hope our detailed elaboration on why do pigeons poop so much clears your confusion. Too much pooping is a natural characteristic of pigeons. However, any unnatural cause can be diminished by taking the pigeon to the vet.
One more thing we would like to share with you here. Like dogs, tigers, etc., pigeons also have territory-marking behavioral characteristics. The behavioral context makes them poop within the surrounding objects like walls, roofs, cars, poles, etc.
