Some here on this forum know Ive had a sick hen( fluff ) in the past , good news is she keeps on going , she has the Lipomas tumur thing going on in two places chest & between legs , one bad foot that won't bend and is now rock solid , she dosn't appear to be in any pain but what has happened now is she has become very very fat from lack of exersize caused from the bad foot . weighed her yesterday 77 grams !

Vet said some months ago all I can do is keep her quality of life up till things get real bad , she eats two teaspoons of seed a day and some baby spinach , is there any more I can do to reduce her weight through diet or anything as the vet said she will crash ( die ) due to her weight ? As I look over to her now she's resting her stomach on one of her toys for support . Her poops look okay and her mood & spirate is good . she just so fat . Vet wanted to convert her to pellets but Ive tried many times and she just wont take to em ( even when mixed with seed) by not eating at all for day & days to the point I just had to feed her straight seed again .

 

Any more I can do ?

 

Cheers Toohp & Fluff

Great to hear she is doing okay

 

If your seed has hulled oats in it, take them out. hulled oats are the ones that make them fat. Sunflower seeds also make them fat, so remove them if they happen to be in the mix too.

Great to hear she is doing okay

 

If your seed has hulled oats in it, take them out. hulled oats are the ones that make them fat. Sunflower seeds also make them fat, so remove them if they happen to be in the mix too.

 

Thanks Liv I'll do that . Ive been cutting down the amount of seed I give her , does two teaspoons a day sound okay ? too much or two little , she will always just about eat any amount I put in the dish a day .

The main points of getting weight down: alter diet and increase activity.

 

I haven't followed your budgie's story so please forgive these questions - how hard is it for her to move around? Can she walk up and down perches okay, climb, hop, fly? Does she do much during the day?

 

If she eats baby spinach, will she eat other veggies? Try a huge range of veggies and make her work for them - don't dice or grate them, get her to do that herself. Try getting some gum or bottlebrush leaves still on the branch and see if she'll tear that up. Even if she doesn't eat it, ripping it will make her more active.

 

I'd make some other suggestions but it might not be appropriate depending on how your bird gets around.

Edited February 21, 200916 yr by Chrysocome

The main points of getting weight down: alter diet and increase activity.

 

I haven't followed your budgie's story so please forgive these questions - how hard is it for her to move around? Can she walk up and down perches okay, climb, hop, fly? Does she do much during the day?

 

If she eats baby spinach, will she eat other veggies? Try a huge range of veggies and make her work for them - don't dice or grate them, get her to do that herself. Try getting some gum or bottlebrush leaves still on the branch and see if she'll tear that up. Even if she doesn't eat it, ripping it will make her more active.

 

I'd make some other suggestions but it might not be appropriate depending on how your bird gets around.

 

My bird can climb okay but the weight is slowing her down a lot & now just fly from perch to perch , she now finds it hard to turn around on the perch because of her bad leg , at one end of the cage I have two perches parallel to each other she now puts one foot on each to turn around . If I see her fall to the bottom of the cage at all I always help her up now . Ive now lowered her perches and put in a extra one to help her climb up to the higher level like a ladder .

 

Today I went to a large pet shop and bought what they told me is breeders seed mix as I noticed the stuff I was using had a lot of hulled oats in it , this new one dosn't have the hulled oats at all .

 

She's a bit of a fussy eater , hasn't taken to many vegie's , she will nibble a little at corn .

 

At the moment she's pretty badly overweight , weighed her again today she's put on another 1 gram, I'm hoping the fatty tumour hasn't become a active type of tumour ?

 

My thoughts are if I can get her to drop some weight I'll introduce more exersize for her she used to climb around the outside of her cage and even fly , now she dosn't like coming out and can no way fly outside the cage .

 

looking at her now she's seems very happy , very playfull & chirping , spinning her toys . I'll try more vegie's along with her new seed mix and get her to exersize more and hopefully things will improve . I think I might have given her too many french millet sprays too often ?

 

Cheers Toohp

Edited February 21, 200916 yr by toohp

Does she like coming out of the cage? Perhaps get her to run around a bit out of the cage? If she's not into flying/or just can't, maybe running would be the go? Make a game of it?

Edited February 21, 200916 yr by maesie

Does she like coming out of the cage? Perhaps get her to run around a bit out of the cage? If she's not into flying/or just can't, maybe running would be the go? Make a game of it?

 

No she dosn't like coming out the cage anymore ,she used to and we used play little games , I just weighed her today she's lost 2 grams, hopefully this continue's and I'm on the right track with the diet . If she looses weight it will be so much easier on her leg re turning around etc . She can't run she's down to a woddle .

 

Thanks Toohp .

Good luck Toohp.

 

If she's not big on veggies try sprouting her normal seeds - I think we have a recipe for that here somewhere. Add more seed hoppers and put a little bit in each, and some empty, so she has to keep moving to get to it all. Put in some natural branches with leaves and twigs for her to destroy - gum leaves, bottle brush etc. Will she tear up some bread? Just for fun, she doesn't have to eat it.

 

If she's still okay with flying from perch to perch, minimise the number of high perches in her cage so she always has to fly get to the other side. Make it so there's a big gap in the middle with nothing to crash into (toys, swings etc). If she's not too great with flying, try putting in a tree branch with lots of twigs for her to climb around on and destroy (try putting it in vertically if she can handle it, it forces her to climb and hang).

 

I'm not sure what else you can do other than introduce her to captive foraging - which I'm about to write up a tutorial for - or clicker training, which can be found in the taming forum. I've been trying to keep my birds' weight down and I know how hard it can be. Good luck and keep us updated.

A update on my bird - She's going real well on her new diet and lost lots of weight( 20 grams ) and very mobile again including being able to fly ! I'm so pleased .

 

Cheers & thanks for the advice again .

Great news!!! Thanks for the update.