Please weigh your birds!

[Hookturn]

Before we got our bird I read that weighing them is the best way to spot an illness early. So I've been weighing our little guy every day.

The last couple days he was losing weight (about 10% in two days). Otherwise he looked fine. He was acting a little strange but nothing that would have concerned me. If I had not been weighing him I'm sure that I would not have thought he was sick and wouldn't have taken him to the vet.

The lesson is that everyone should be weighing their birds everyday! The food scale I bought cost only about $15 so the cost is not an excuse. So please, please, please, weigh your birds everyday. If you don't you might not know your bird of sick until it's too late.

[marie83]

absolutely agree with you.
Not only do I weigh my birds but also their food before and after their meals so I know if they are losing their appetite (I do have to make allowances for dropped or thrown food though so its not entirely accurate but for people that want precision they could weigh the bird before and after meals).
I don't weigh my birds before and after meals because they eat in between meals too, although this is a set amount so I still know within a couple of grams if they have eaten less that day.

For those that want to do a once daily weight check then the best time is first thing in the morning after the big poo but before feeding.

[Pajarita]

Weighting birds every day is not necessary and can lead to panic when it's not necessary. It's recommended that you do it once a month but even then there will be variations due to seasonal changes (if you are keeping them at a solar schedule, that is).

It's great that you noticed the weight loss and took it to the vet but, in reality, you were missing several symptoms if you did not notice anything different because a bird that loses 10% of his weight in a couple of days is a bird that has been sick for some time and it' already feeling so bad that is not eating enough (and that means leftover food and not enough poop, lethargy -like sleeping after breakfast, for example, less flying and with less strength, tail bob, etc). This is one of the dangers of free-feeding (because if you fill up a bowl and leave it at that, you simply cannot judge accurately how much the bird is eating on a daily basis), keeping a bird when you work full time (you are not there after breakfast) and clipping (you can't judge if the bird is weak). Mind you, I am not saying any of these things applies to you and your bird, I am just explaining why these common practices affect not only directly but also indirectly your bird's wellbeing.

[marie83]

If I was weighing once a month I wouldn't have realised how quick mine were losing weight.granted I knew something was wrong from other symptoms but even so..... You have to expect fluctuations when weighing daily though and as long as people are aware of that it won't cause panic..

[Hookturn]

I have to totally disagree too. Again I noticed a very subtle change in his demeanor but only the days he began losing weight bye was not lethargic at all and was a bundle of energy (still is btw).

If the worst thing that comes from weighing everyday is that you are over cautious and take your bird to the vet when they don't need it, then I don't see that as a downside at all.

[liz]

I do not keep track of how much each of my cockatiels eat because they are in a flock. I do watch them to see how enthusiastic they are about eating. All eat very well but Maggie is in the lead as a consumer.

[Pajarita]

I have to totally disagree too. Again I noticed a very subtle change in his demeanor but only the days he began losing weight bye was not lethargic at all and was a bundle of energy (still is btw).

If the worst thing that comes from weighing everyday is that you are over cautious and take your bird to the vet when they don't need it, then I don't see that as a downside at all.

The point I was trying to make is that, in reality, it's not necessary but, if you want to do it, it's fine. This is one case of 'more doesn't hurt'. I don't weigh my birds UNLESS I notice something not quite right. I am home all day and observe every single one of them carefully twice a day and can assure you that you can most definitely see a change. The first thing you notice is a reduction in activity (flight been the main change but your bird is clipped so, of course, you could not tell). Another one is that the bird takes naps or fluffs up when it's not supposed to but you only see this when you are there 24/7 (do you work outside the house?) and pay attention (people that don't keep their birds to a solar schedule think nothing when they see their bird sleeping in the middle of the morning, for example). Appetite, poop quantity and look is another one (people often notice a change in the look but not in the quantity). When they stop or reduce their talking/whistling or vocalizing.

[Hookturn]

I do work outside the house. JJ is usually by himself for about 5 hours 3 days a week. Again he didn't show any of the signs you spoke of (except for flight of course) until he started losing weight.

From what I've read and heard, birds are very good at disguising illness. I've also read that weight is many times the only way to tell if they're sick. I imagine you're the exception and as it can only lead to earlier treatment in many cases it seems to me that weighing them should be part of everyone's daily routine.

[Wolf]

I do have a set of scales that I recently got to weigh out ingredients for making my birds food and so that I can weigh them. Now, I don't weigh them every day and have no argument for or against weighing them daily. It does seem to me that if they are going to lose weight the the very first thing would be for them to go off their feed. By this I don't mean that they just quit eating, but that they will eat less than they normally do. I know that this holds true for most other species of animals and all of them can be pretty good at hiding the fact that they are ill. With birds the problem is that they are small and have such a high metabolism that they can go off their feed and lose the weight in a matter of hours and this translates into much less time to act once you discover the possible illness. I am for just about anything that makes detection of illness or dis-- ease of any type easier and faster. I know from the fact that I am with my birds all of the time unless I have a doctors appointment or need to go to the grocery store that the very first sign that I see is a change in how vocal they are, especially first thing in the morning when we go through the flock calls and the good mornings.
This is not in any way intended to have any effect other than to add to or enhance the matter of early detection of any illness or dis--ease in our birds and I hope that these observations of mt own birds will assist with this in your birds.

[Pajarita]

I do work outside the house. JJ is usually by himself for about 5 hours 3 days a week. Again he didn't show any of the signs you spoke of (except for flight of course) until he started losing weight.

From what I've read and heard, birds are very good at disguising illness. I've also read that weight is many times the only way to tell if they're sick. I imagine you're the exception and as it can only lead to earlier treatment in many cases it seems to me that weighing them should be part of everyone's daily routine.

Yes, they are certainly VERY good at hiding symptoms and weight loss is definitely a way of realizing they are sick. My issue with doing it every day been that people will misinterpret readings and reduce or add food when they shouldn't (have you seen the posting on this person who keeps his bird's weight low and exactly the same all year round by counting the number of pellets he serves?). But I am not the exception. It's like everything else, a matter of quantity and length of exposure and just good memory and putting two and two together. I've had birds my entire life and have been taking in parrots for 22 year so I've not only taught myself to look carefully for the signs and to 'see' when I look. And I've learned the hard way. One morning, about 6 years ago, I saw Cowboy (17 year old female Senegal) fluffing up and going to sleep right after breakfast and, although I wondered at it and made a mental note to check on her, when the evening came and she came flying for her dinner, I watched her eat, touched her chest to ascertain she was in good weight (she was) and dismissed the whole thing as a false alarm. The next morning I found her dead. This bird was in perfect plumage and weight. She did not have any discharge from anywhere, no labored breathing, no tail bob, good appetite, good poop, etc and the ONLY thing different had been that single morning nap. But, when my AV opened her up for the necropsy, she called me to come over to her house and see. She was a mess inside, the poor thing! All her internal organs had been greatly compromised (enlarged, discolored, etc). When we sent tissue samples out to ran cultures on them, it came back positive for psittacosis (this is when I had the epidemic in my birdroom brought in by a sick cockatiel that I had taken in from a bird rescue in upstate NY which was closing down). If you look at 99% of the sites where they describe psittacosis, you will find that they don't tell you that death can occur without almost any symptoms but I now know it does.