Overweight budgie or underweight?

[R&C]

Recently I’ve noticed my budgie has been eating more lately, whenever he wants more food he goes to the bottom of the cage looking for food, and I feel very bad for her so like a good owner, I gave her more food. But I feel like sometimes she asks for more food a little too much! Nothing have changed in her appearance much but I’m just very concerned if she is underweight or overweight, I know for a fact that if she is overweight she can be more exposed to arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, and/or hepatic lipidosis (also called fatty liver disease). Please help your new budgie owner!

-Rianna.

 

[R&C]

PS: I don’t usually check how much food I give her which is probably bad so Ill start doing that too!

 

[orphansparrow]

Do you have a scale? Even a kitchen scale?

I mean so you can weigh her, not necessarily the food..

 

[R&C]

Yes I have a scale I’ll check her weight! Thanks for your help!

 

[orphansparrow]

Yeah, record her weight and then check in on normal Budgie weight range. Then keep recording it to see what’s going on.
I sometimes put a dish of treats on the scale, then tare that weight and then put my guy on so he’ll stay put and eat while I’m weighing him.

 

[Shezbug]

You will want to check the keel bone for determining if your bird is of a good weight, underweight or overweight. Using weight alone can be quite dangerous as birds just like humans come in many sizes even within the same species- there are people with perfectly healthy B&G macaws who weigh a heck of a lot less than my macaw does and budgies can have a massive difference in weights from other budgies.

 

[orphansparrow]

That's a good point @Shezbug I like the graphic. Very clear.

 

[Shezbug]

That's a good point @Shezbug I like the graphic. Very clear.

It is a good thing to remember the importance of checking the keel bone until a regular healthy weight has been established for each individual as each bird. The keel bone is how the vet will check the condition of birds they are assessing.