WORRY ABOUT WEIGHT

[Bronxboomer]

I'm alittle worry about my Greys weight when i frist weight him his weight was 374grms then he went to 379 Grms now he droped to 364Grms. I feed him alot of fruits and his Bird mix.

[judygram]

I don't think that is enough to worry about yet, if it goes any lower then he should get checked out. Do you weigh him every day or so, you should and maybe jot down on a calendar what it is and that way you can keep up with it.

 

I would include a lot of vegetables with the fruit, in fact it should be more veggies than fruit.

[Bronxboomer]

What Kind of vegetables should i gave my grey

[judygram]

Any veggies except mushrooms, onions and avocodo.

 

You can offer them raw, cooked, chopped, mashed, shredded or most any form. Try several different kinds in several different ways. He can also eat some of what you are having for dinner, my Josey eats off my plate. No salty foods or sweetened foods.

 

I think we have a thread that deals with veggies and what to feed and not to feed. Check it out for lots of good ideas.

[Bronxboomer]

I give my grey sometimes out of my plate He eats Yams Chicken Bread cookies with peanut butter

[judygram]

I'd go easy on the cookies, a nibble now and then, but don't make a habit of it, the other things you mentioned are fine.

[Bronxboomer]

The Bird store where i bought my grey they told me to give him crackers with peanutbutter to make him gain weight. But for some reason he doesn't like peanutbutter

[judygram]

Try giving him some unsalted peanuts if you want him to gain some weight, but his weight may just be his normal weight for him. Just provide him with plenty of foods and he will eat what he needs.

[dblhelix]

Do you have enough weight readings to get a reasonable average? You need to weigh at least every other day, at the same time each day for about a month to get a decent average. Once you have that established then a variance of up to 10% is normal, more than 10% in a short time is reason for concern. The fluctuation you mention is well w/in 10% of 374 as 10% would be +- 37 grams. But again having a good average and adjusting this average over time is important. With a young bird this may change as they mature, exercise more (lose weight), put on muscle (gain weight) balance their eating etc. Sometimes they drop weight for a period, other times they gain.

 

Again, the numbers you list are not reason for concern, but I would certainly keep watching and establish a routine to get a good number of data points for an average.

 

To give you an idea, Kip (femal CAG) was 355 g when we got her at 7 months. She went as low as 345, but overall has been increasing in weight. Her average now is around 375 g and she is currently 15 mos old. She is on the smaller side for a CAG, but well w/in normal range and healthy.<br><br>Post edited by: dblhelix, at: 2007/09/25 04:36

[Bronxboomer]

Yeah i will start weighting him more I only check his weight once a week. Every saturday. I have tryed to get my grey to eat pellets he wont touch them why is that

[judygram]

Some of the members have had luck getting their greys to eat pellets by soaking them in a little juice like apple juice and then maybe using less and less juice until they are eating them without it. Try that and see if it makes him eat or at least try them.

[Bronxboomer]

Good News everyone my Grey is up on his weight that little booger is eating very good His weight was 364Grms then it jumped to 371grms then it went to 375grms Now he is up to 395grms looking good I took him off the seeds and make him fresh veggies everyday and fruits and i ordered this bean mix which i got from http://www.nwscape.com/cgi-bin/nwscape/myparrot.com/storefront?pg=CM&pn=5545&bt=1&action=W

 

Check it out everyone its really great my Casper loves this mix B)

[judygram]

Thats great news, Bronxboomer, see he just needed the proper nutrition and it looks like you are providing that now and this mix looks good too, I may have to try that, thanks for posting the link.

[Bronxboomer]

Yeah Judygram you should try that mix its very easy to cook up and my grey loves it he eats it all i was very surprise to see him enjoy it. Check out Denise website she has a few other mixes and good food for our greys and other's

[judygram]

Thanks I will.B)

[danmcq]

That's good news bronxboomer :-)

 

I mix up a bean mix similar to what that website sells, along with some other ingredients such as pasta and Dayo seems to like it also.

 

Don't be such a stranger, we love to hear from you and about your Greys progress !!

[dumfatnhappy]

our youngest was raised on a "soak and simmer" mix much like Denise's and *love's* it. She won't get near pellets....our other bird is just the opposite! (nuthin is easy I swear)

[danmcq]

Your right DFnH!!

 

Greys and other Parrots have just as a diverse set of likes and dislikes, fears and no fears as us Humans. :-)

[loviechick]

I've been lucky in that both of my Greys will eat their pellets, but they definitely prefer when mama cooks for them LOL

 

Neither of mine particularly care for peanut butter, but they both go bonkers for unsalted peanuts!!!

[Lusya]

Hi!

 

I am little concern about Izzie’s weight. When we went to the vet couple of weeks ago and they tried to weigh her on a small scale she refused to stay, so they put her on the bigger one and told me she is about 414-420g

We’ve ordered a scale to have at home and check her weight occasionally but something happened to our order. Anyways, we stopped by my parent’s house for the holidays and my mom has a little kitchen scale we tried to use. Izzie refused to stay on them still so we didn’t get the precise weight. But it seems like she is about 370-378g, which indicates that she dropped about 44g.

I don’t know what to think, what to do and how to react. I am really worried about it, but I am not sure if I should. Yesterday she ate smaller portion then usual since we were driving for 3.5 hours to stay at my parents’ house for the holidays. She ate a little this morning because she is getting used to her smaller cage (just for the trip).

Should I weigh her everyday now to see if it stays the same, should I take her to the vet right away. Please help!

 

Thank you!!

[Guest briansmum]

44g in a couple of weeks is a lot and i'm sure you would notice physical change with a weight loss like that. does she feel lighter, or bonier?

 

like you said she wouldn't stay still on the scales so it's impossible to get an accurate reading. i would try again tomorrow and see what you get then. if you havent noticed any change in her size or build i would say that is is probaly the scales that are unreliable.

[judygram]

This is what happens when you use two different scales, the readings will not be the same for they may not be calibrated correctly. You need to get your own scales that you can weigh her every day for a while to get an average weight, then you can just do it weekly to keep a check on it.

[danmcq]

I'm with Briansmum and Judy. The scales the weight readings were taken on were 1) larger scale at vet = more percentage of error, possibly +- 50 grams and 2) the scale at your mothers could have been "tweaked" or out of calibration.

 

Digital scales use a strain gage load cell. This is, to picture it for you, basically a resistive piece of wire attached between 2 points of a metal housing and it reacts by sending an increasingly larger dc voltage change as the metal deflection between the 2 points it's attached to changes in distance between the two points. The more weight. the shorter or longer the distance depending on the load cell design.

 

Anyway, if anything too heavy has been placed on a sensitive digital scale or someone has tweaked it sideways, it will "Tweak" the metal housing of the load cell and throw the readings off. Thus a re-calibration is necessary and if it won't calibrate, the scale is now trash.

 

So, I would not be worried about the weight change at this point. Get a new gram scale and track it's weight daily for a while. :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/11/23 15:29

[Lusya]

Thank you everyone!

She seems fine, she eats well, her poop is normal, she is playful. I am hoping it is a scale problem and soon we will have our own scale to check Izzie daily.

[Lusya]

Ok, I ordered new scale so we will keep one at home. I will weigh her every day when I get it.

 

For now, I looked over some pictures and it seems like she is a tiny one. Is there any healty way to help her gain some weight? What food should I offer?