Underweight Bird

[Tarsun]

My lovebird is underweight, he's 4o grams. I need to him gain another 15-20 grams. That's pretty much my goal. How do I help him gain weight, should I crumble egg biscuits into his normal meals? I'm having trouble with that. Anyways are there advice, products, and suggestions that I could use on my bird. Thanks

[Michael]

How do you know it is underweight?

[Tarsun]

How do you know it is underweight?

Because I took him to my friend's dad who is a Veternarian. He weighed him on a gram scale and my bird was 40 grams, he told me he was underweight and he should be around 55-60 grams. However he never gave me advice on how to help him gain weight. I did research, and found out about egg biscuits and crumbling them into my bird's meals, because it was fattening and has alot of protein. I don't have much of an idea but I'm trying egg biscuits on my bird. He seems to like it alot.

[Michael]

How does he know he is under weight? Doesn't sound like he knows what he's talking about.

I'm not ruling out the possibility that the bird IS underweight but the only way to know is if you have been consistently weighing the bird and it lost some from its normal weight. Just like people, some are naturally bigger built while others may be petite and healthy. The published numbers are only averages.

[Kim S]

Michael, while you are right, youre not being helpfull.

The optimal weight is different for every bird. While the norm might be 60 grams, it is not unusual for a lovebird to be 40 grams.
The easiest way to feel if your bird is underweight is to feel his chestbone. How much 'meat' does he have on either side of the bone?
You can check the diagram in this topic to compare your bird to:
http://theparrotforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1987&p=9252&hilit=healthy+weight#p9251

Its a bad idea to feed it 'fat' food. This will just make him fat instead of getting him to a healthy weight. You need to figure out why he is underweight. Do you feed him enough? Do you feed him the food he needs to have? Is he healthy? maybe he has a worminfection or something that prevents him from digesting the food he eats.
I think it is a good idea to take him to a real avian vet (not a normal vet) for a check up. Its always a good idea to make sure there is no illess that is the cause of the low weight.

[Michael]

I'm just warning that going strictly by numbers is unreliable. Kili is well below average Senegal Parrot weight, even for female Senegals. Yet every expert that has ever seen her has commented how she is a perfect "plumpness." She's just a petite Senegal.

But yes, looking at the bird and feeling for the keel bone is the better way to determine if the bird is too skinny or not. However, I don't think it is an easy thing to do for someone who has only experienced one bird and never paid attention to these variations.

By the way, this is a very important topic that is not depicted in any of our articles. That diagram is a good start but it really needs a complete explanation. Is anyone up for writing an article about parrot weight, nutrition (in terms of weight), and plumpness? While I understand the concepts, I don't feel I am qualified enough to write about this.

[Kim S]

Thanks for understanding what I meant. And I agree that there is a need for an article that covers this. Maybe in combination with a basic healthy food advice (hopefully without firing up the old pellets/seed discussion).

[birdvet]

I'm not going to promise anything, I'm trying to write up my Masters thesis in my spare time (of which there is NONE...sigh!), but I will see if I can throw something together (or if I infact have such an article stashed somewhere) for the forum. I am heading to a conference at this end of this week and then a bit of a holiday so may be a few weeks (months) away

I am a firm believer in body condition and not weight (which is what you were talking about, Michael) so i will try an explain those concepts etc etc.

As an aside, the Conference is the International Penguin Conference which is being held in Boston, MA. I'm doing research on penguins so going to present my findings . I'm hoping to find time to go visit The Alex Foundation while I'm over there...that would be AWESOME!!!

[Michael]

I think you missed the mark. Don't you think Boston is just a tad too far north? Antarctica is the place to be







Thanks for your proposal to write an article about healthy bird plumpness (that's the only way I can put it... most people talk about a healthy weight but plumpness is really what we're looking for and not too much).

[Tarsun]

I now understand weight isn't a big issue when it comes to birds, it's more about feeling for the keel bone to tell if the bird is skinny or not, as Michael has said. In fact, my bird is perfectly fine with his 'plumpness'. He looks fine to me, it just scared me a bit to be told he was underweight. He eats properly, and gets all nutritional needs. By the way I would definitely like to read an article about parrot weight. I tried looking up for one on Michael's blogs etc. but I couldn't find one. I tried looking up other sites as well but all they could speak about was weight and other garbage. Thanks guys! I don't know what I would do without this forum