Proportions of Ammonia, Urea, Urate and Total Nitrogen in Avian Urine and Quantitative Methods for Their Analysis on a Single Urine Sample

Abstract

We have developed a dilution method for avian urine and modified existing analytical methods for ammonia, urea, uric acid and total nitrogen to permit determination of all these compounds on aliquots of the same urine sample. The proportions of urinary nitrogen in these compounds were: uric acid 55-72%, ammonia 11-21% and urea 2-11%. This ranking of proportions was consistent for four different dietary protein-water availability regimes. There were no significant differences in the proportions of these nitrogenous compounds due to either dietary protein intake or changes in water availability.