How much millet?

[tweetiepiesmom]

suesbird post and comment about her budgie getting millet everyday while she was on holiday got me thinking - how much millet is too much? I'm trying to train my guys to sit on my finger and come when I call. They get training sessions every day and rewarded with millet. Typically, they get one or two baubles each everyday. Buddy usually gets the most and now I'm looking at him wondering if he's getting fat. Tweetie Pie looks good and I don't think Buddy is fat. 

[Marianne Marlow]

Mine don't get millet very often at all.

I used to give them it once a week, but it makes so much mess!

[tweetiepiesmom]

So true Marianne Marlow but since its only me, I don't mind running the vacuum to keep it cleaned up. I guess I'm just like the sweet grandmother who spoils the babies! As long as I'm not making them unhealthy...

[Deleted]

I'm in the boat of needing to offer it more often because I'm still in the trust-building phase! Time passes so quickly though.

[tweetiepiesmom]

With the millet that I have, its easy to peel a bauble off and get a bit of stem to pinch between my fingers so I can control how much I offer them. Unfortunately, they are not tame enough for me to weigh them so I have to rely on my eye to judge their weight gain.

[Deleted]

Same, tweetiepiesmom. I wouldn't be able to get them onto a scale easily.

[Hezz]

They don't have to be tame to be easily weighed. A small cardboard box or even a kitchen bowl will suffice. Weighing on a regular basis allows you to see trends in weight gain or loss. Marianne's birds aren't tame and she weighs them regularly.

By the time you can see that your bird is fat, it is going to be well over-weight. You need to be able to feel the bird to know whether it is in good condition or too fat. Or get your vet to do it for you.

[Deleted]

Hmm, true. I guess just catching them and putting them inside something would work. I don't think my two would stay in something with an open top long enough.

[tweetiepiesmom]

I worry about catching them while I'm trying to tame them. I have caught Buddy to take him to the vet and it didn't have any long lasting effect on taming him. I can catch Buddy but Tweetie Pie is another matter. That little guy is fast as lightening and squirmy! I watched the vet weigh Buddy pre-pandemic. She had a small paper bag on the scale, the kind we used to carry lunch to school in. She put him in it and held her hand over the top so he wouldn't fly out. I think that would work for Buddy but Tweetie Pie.... Maybe they need to get used to being caught?

[willowsmum]

Not sure if it would work for you but I weigh Willow by putting his small playgym on the electronic kitchen scales and waiting until he lands on it He usually obliges.....eventually.

[Deleted]

I used to do that with Munchy on a single perch stand that we had. Only difference was that I could put him onto it. If I could get a small gym then the waiting game might work with these two.

tweetiepiesmom I know what you mean. I don't want to ruin what I've gotten going with these two. Part of me wants to put a glove on or get one of those nets to catch them until they're tame enough that I can slowly teach them that the hand is not a scary beast and help them learn that me picking them up with my hand isn't scary.

They both zoom about the cage super fast too, so catching them takes a while and stresses them out. Maybe if they went into the travel cage at some point I could shut them in and then catch them in there.

[Marianne Marlow]

Sadly, they have not been weighed in ages, it's difficult to stay in any routine with Eve around, running about.

Sept 12, 2020 0:27:36 GMT Hezz said:

They don't have to be tame to be easily weighed. A small cardboard box or even a kitchen bowl will suffice. Weighing on a regular basis allows you to see trends in weight gain or loss. Marianne's birds aren't tame and she weighs them regularly.

By the time you can see that your bird is fat, it is going to be well over-weight. You need to be able to feel the bird to know whether it is in good condition or too fat. Or get your vet to do it for you.

[tweetiepiesmom]

Understandable Marianne Marlow! Too bad there isn't a little scale that looks like a platform perch to put in the cage and then weigh them! Hmmmm, maybe this can be my get rich quick invention although it doesn't seem to be quick to invent or would make me rich!

[Deleted]

It would be helpful to have a scale that read automatically when the weight changed. Most that I know would require you to keep turning them on until you got lucky.

How do you usually weigh yours, Marianne Marlow?

[tweetiepiesmom]

Right now my guys only perch on their cage or perches attached to the outside of their cage so putting a perch on the scale hoping they will go to it doesn't work. I've provided them other places including a playgym but they haven't expanded their comfort zone. So the dilemma continues.