Emma's Diet Update

[Birdasaurus]

As many of you know, our rescue Emma has been diagnosed with being FAT. She was a 42g budgie, and no she's not an English by any means...she should weigh about 29g.

Today she weighed in at 39g (7% of her body wieght!), simply by putting her on a healthier Goldenfeast diet as opposed to the 90% millet diet she was on and giving her a bigger cage where she's gotta work to get around. We're working on fresh foods....but they are still the enemy.

Way to go Emma....let's keep it up girly!

 

[itzmered]

WTG Emma!

 

[Mommyofgus]

Yay Emma! You go girl. I know how hard it is to lose weight. Keep up the good work.

 

[thejoie]

woohoo!!! what's the goldenfeast food you're feeding? The regular parakeet goldenfeast mix?

 

[love4birds]

Whoo-hoo, that's great!

 

[Birdasaurus]

woohoo!!! what's the goldenfeast food you're feeding? The regular parakeet goldenfeast mix?

A mix of Australian blend and Petite Hookbill blend. It still has some of their fav seeds, but they get tricked into eating healthier stuff

 

[Chicklette]

That is great news. That is quite the drop in weight. You don't want over weight birds, that's not healthy. My IRN Chiquita is big but it's bulk, not fat. I think if he didn't exercise and fly around in and out of his cage he would be very over weight.

 

[Billie Faye]

Way to go!!!!!
You keep exercising and you will be in top shape in no time!
Does she come out to fly around?

 

[srtiels]

Hi...there may be info in this thread: Tiel Chat Cockatiel Message Board Chat: Back from vet....Chester update That may be helpful for your budgie.

 

[Birdasaurus]

Way to go!!!!!
You keep exercising and you will be in top shape in no time!
Does she come out to fly around?

We've tried, but she usually doesn't want to come out. When she does, she flies around in a panic and crashes into EVERYTHING. We're not giving up on it, but we don't push her into it very often. So the majority of this weight loss is from in-cage activity. I can't imagine when she does come out and fly regularly!

 

[Chicklette]

We've tried, but she usually doesn't want to come out. When she does, she flies around in a panic and crashes into EVERYTHING. We're not giving up on it, but we don't push her into it very often. So the majority of this weight loss is from in-cage activity. I can't imagine when she does come out and fly regularly!

Poor baby, just give it some time. I have a couple links for you on flighted birds that might help you out. Im not sure if it will help but you can take a look. She will eventually know her way around your home.

http://www.robharvey.com/information/training.html

 

[Birdasaurus]

Thanks, I'll take a look!

Part of it seems to be her weight...that she can't turn quickly like the other budgies to avoid something. The whole conservation of momentum thing seems to really bring down her flying skills...poor girl! Hopefully as she sheds the weight, flying will be easier as well!

 

[Sharpie]

Way to go, both of you! As she looses weight, hopefully moving and flying will become easier on her and she'll be more willing to exercise. Is she really a small budgie? 29g is a fre grams smaller than any of mine (avg 33-36g), but I know budgie size does vary a bit. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat too though. All of my budgies actually gained a couple of grams when I stopped clipping them because they put on a lot of flight muscle. My YNA did the same thing too- according to the vet, his ideal 'couch potato' weight is about 660g, but his ideal flighted weight is closer to 715g, so don't be too hard on yourselves because of what the scale reads!

 

[Birdasaurus]

Way to go, both of you! As she looses weight, hopefully moving and flying will become easier on her and she'll be more willing to exercise. Is she really a small budgie? 29g is a fre grams smaller than any of mine (avg 33-36g), but I know budgie size does vary a bit. Remember that muscle weighs more than fat too though. All of my budgies actually gained a couple of grams when I stopped clipping them because they put on a lot of flight muscle. My YNA did the same thing too- according to the vet, his ideal 'couch potato' weight is about 660g, but his ideal flighted weight is closer to 715g, so don't be too hard on yourselves because of what the scale reads!

She's supposed to be a smaller budgie, we do have some larger ones, but she's not built like that. She's supposed to be more the size of her 29g partner. The vet thinks she has a hypothyroid condition and due to her old home not taking proper care of her, she developed these fatty tumors. It's definitely not muscle weight, the fat is very visible on her. Now it's up to us to turn it into muscle!

 

[Brigidt36]

That's the way to do it, Emma. Way to Go!!!

 

[Bokkapooh]

Plenty of excersize both inside a big cage and outside flying around and a healthy diet is the way to go. GOOD JOB!

 

[BraveheartDogs]

We've tried, but she usually doesn't want to come out. When she does, she flies around in a panic and crashes into EVERYTHING. We're not giving up on it, but we don't push her into it very often. So the majority of this weight loss is from in-cage activity. I can't imagine when she does come out and fly regularly!

Congratulations on her weight loss! I have 8 budgies and they all eat fresh food now, but I had to keep on trying and trying and trying and for a long time they left it, but then they started eating it! out of all my birds, they are the ones who CLEAN their little fresh food plate.

 

[Bokkapooh]

Congratulations on her weight loss! I have 8 budgies and they all eat fresh food now, but I had to keep on trying and trying and trying and for a long time they left it, but then they started eating it! out of all my birds, they are the ones who CLEAN their little fresh food plate.

Yeah same here. I just kepy putting fresh foods ONTOP of their seed mix, and they started to eat the veggies