Limiting the number of treats for trick training

[Scotty]

It's not rubbish because if your bird is flighted and has a fast metabolism they are going to burn it off...

Over time whatever is stored in the liver does get burnt out...

Sorry for not being clear on the 15 a day, I meant to say that I've done this before in the past, but it's not something I'd do every day, yes I agree to many aren't good.

Noelani that I adopted, was given, the originall owners had her on a big seed based diet for years and she is extremly healthy at 14 yrs old. Not that I condone what they did, they didn't know any better, just that it's possible for a bird to be healthy too with lots of seeds.

It's like people who smoke and drink their whole life and live longer then some healthy vegan it happens...

BUT yes, when I can figure out what nice pellets I can give to BeBe for training treats instead I'll switch off the sunflower seeds...

[Weka]

Hum! I do hope I'm not giving Skeeter too many treats. (guilty look) Right now we're working with about 4-5 pistachios OR two walnuts -- max -- per day, broken up into about 20 or more little pieces. He also likes a small sliver of an organic Granny Smith apple in the morning while I'm chopping up his breakfast veggies, but he doesn't get too excited about it as a reward for targeting.

I've noticed he's been eating less of his pellets this week, which also might indicate that I need to go easy on the nuts...


--Weka

[Pajarita]

It's not rubbish because if your bird is flighted and has a fast metabolism they are going to burn it off...

Over time whatever is stored in the liver does get burnt out...

Sorry for not being clear on the 15 a day, I meant to say that I've done this before in the past, but it's not something I'd do every day, yes I agree to many aren't good.

Noelani that I adopted, was given, the originall owners had her on a big seed based diet for years and she is extremly healthy at 14 yrs old. Not that I condone what they did, they didn't know any better, just that it's possible for a bird to be healthy too with lots of seeds.

It's like people who smoke and drink their whole life and live longer then some healthy vegan it happens...

BUT yes, when I can figure out what nice pellets I can give to BeBe for training treats instead I'll switch off the sunflower seeds...

Nope. Fatty nodules in the liver do not get burn out regardless of how fast the bird's metabolism is or how much it flies (no captive bird flies anywhere near as much as wild birds do). They accumulate and the liver starts to become enlarged so as to continue keeping up with its functions but, eventually, it cannot keep up and that is when you go from hepatic lipidosis into hepatic failure and the bird dies.

As to Noelani been healthy, has she had a bile acids test, a CBC, an avian chem panel, a free calcium test, blood pressure measured and a full body Xray? Because unless all of this were done and all resuls were smack in the middle of the normal range, you really do not know. I am not trying to knock down your comment, mind you, but most people take their birds to the vet and get a visual physical (which means diddly squat) with a CBC and, because this comes back normal, they are sure their bird is healthy when, in reality, they don't know.