Has Your Parrot Ever Had Sour Crop?

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Sour crop is the term given to the illness a parrot has when the food in its crop has gone bad.   This is a very serious situation for a parrot and attention needs to be given to it immediately.

What is the ‘crop’?

It is a small bag of skin surrounded by muscles and situated approximately half way down the esophagus on the way to the gizzard (stomach).  The crop allows the parrot to store extra food that it has found.  When the stomach is empty the muscles surrounding the crop move the food up to the opening of the crop which is about 3/4 of the up, and then the food goes down into the stomach.

The purpose of the crop in parrots is because they cannot always find food available when they are hungry so when they do find food they can gorge themselves and eat the food from the crop at a later stage.

Food in the crop.

The crop needs to be emptied at least once a day so that food does not remain there and go rancid.  If the food is not emptied each day there is the risk of food spoilage and this then causes ‘sour crop’ which is a very dangerous health risk for a parrot.  This is why it is a good idea to feed a parrot with two meals a day and with only a few nibbles in between.

The crop can be felt behind the breast feathers of the parrot and it should never feel tight.  When all is well the crop will more than likely feel like a soft balloon.

Hand-Feeding Baby Parrots.

Hand-feeding of baby parrots needs extra care because their crop will extend so much that it becomes hard and the skin stretches which will cause major problems at a later date as the muscles will have become weakened by this process.   The process of hand-feeding a baby parrot is quite complicated and if you plan on doing this by raising baby parrots then take the time to research the proper feeding methods to ensure the safety of the parrot.

Bacterial Infection in the Crop.

As in humans, the parrot does have bacteria in its digestive track at all times and occasionally the parrot may get sour crop from bacteria in the crop getting out of control.

Another reason for sour crop is that the parrot has eaten something that is off.  This means that it has ingested food which will cause it to be ill.

As a parrot owner never take the feeding of your parrot for granted.  It needs to be monitored at all times.

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