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overweight lovebird?

OkiF

Sitting on the front steps
Joined
9/29/20
Messages
17
Hello,

I am worried for our two little lovebirds, Botan chan (blue personatus) is most likely a female (witchy character), 13 months old with one leg paresis and she weights between 49 and 51 g. And Hani chan (hybrid fisheri/personatus?), is possibly a male (hormonal male behavior, with one occasion where we saw him being "confused" and spreading wings when Botan spread her wings), but is is only 7 months old and he seems to get territorial when under a shelter (although Botan is still the boss) so there is a bit of a doubt on the sex. The thing is that he is now heavier than Botan with 52 grams today and I don't see a stabilisation in the weight. Both of them are always looking for more food. I feel they started to gain weight when we shifted from mainly seeds to mainly Harrisons pellets, but it may not be related. We try to "limit" a bit the amounts of seeds and pellets (before they always had as much as they wanted of seeds) and they eat basically the pellets with some chop everymorning including some mixed seeds (I think they mostly enjoy looking for the seeds in the chop as I feel most of the vegetables are left/spread around).

While they are rather tame, we cannot hold them and look for chest fat under the feathers. Hani often looks like he has a full crop, although I thought this is mainly in babies. The vet saw them maybe 3 weeks ago at 48-49 grams and she said they are not fat, but maybe a bit "chubby" and said they had some fat around the neck (I was hoping she would show us the chest fat...).

I certainly don't want to starve the birds, but I am a bit worried by these weights and not sure what to do... Any advice?
 

Zara

♥❀Livin´ in Lovebird Land❀☼
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Can your birds fly? And do they get daily flying opportunities?
 

OkiF

Sitting on the front steps
Joined
9/29/20
Messages
17
Yes, they do fly both morning and evening. Actually, Hani chan is quite overactive and often just fly around the room just for fun (landing at exactly the same spot). Also in the cage Hani is usually more active than Botan (younger?) and seems to like green veggies more. This combined with the fact that he often regurgitates to Botan, gives me troubles to understand why he keeps increasing his weight...
 

Zara

♥❀Livin´ in Lovebird Land❀☼
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He could weigh more because of muscle?
It´s unlikely an active lovebird is overweight, so I would definitely have a talk with your vet and see what they think. They will be able to have a feel and see what´s really going on.
 
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