Color guide
Stool color chart: what different poop colors can mean.
Most stool color changes come from food, bile pigments, supplements, medicines, or how quickly stool moves. Some colors, especially black tarry stool, red blood, and pale stool with jaundice symptoms, need faster attention.
Brown
Usually typical. Bile changes color as it moves through the digestive tract, giving stool its familiar brown range.
Green
Can follow leafy foods, dyes, iron, or faster transit. It is often not dangerous by itself.
Yellow, greasy, floating, foul-smelling
Can suggest extra fat in stool or malabsorption, especially if it persists or comes with weight loss.
Black or tarry
May be from iron, bismuth, or dark foods, but black tarry stool can also indicate upper GI bleeding. Get medical advice promptly.
Bright red or dark red
Can be food coloring, beets, hemorrhoids, fissures, infection, inflammation, or lower GI bleeding. New or heavy bleeding needs care.
Pale, white, or clay-colored
Can point to low bile in stool. Call a clinician, especially with yellow skin or eyes, dark urine, fever, or pain.
Color changes that should not be ignored
Seek urgent medical help for black tarry stool, bloody diarrhea, heavy rectal bleeding, stool with red blood plus dizziness or weakness, or bleeding that will not stop. Get medical advice for persistent pale stool, unexplained weight loss, anemia symptoms, or bowel changes lasting weeks.
Helpful context to write down
- Recent foods: beets, blueberries, black licorice, leafy greens, tomato products, food dyes.
- Recent medicines or supplements: iron, bismuth subsalicylate, antibiotics, blood thinners, NSAIDs.
- Symptoms: pain, fever, vomiting, dizziness, fatigue, dehydration, yellow skin or eyes, dark urine.
- Timing: one event, several days, recurring pattern, or a clear change from baseline.