over weight hen

[daz1965]

Hi all was given a blue hen & she's over weight not sure if you can tell by the photo but the breeder i bought 2 yellow lutino hens & 2 green cocks from didnt want her & gave her to us free of charge. my question is how to slim her down?

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[Bird Junky]

Hi If you feed her the same healthy diet your other birds

eat. If she is fat she should slim down. Do you weighed

all your birds? Birds are like people, there has to be variation.

A Show bird could be double the weight of a pet budgie

without having an ounce of fat on him. Yours B.J.

[daz1965]

No we havent weighed her but shes alot bigger than every body else. the 2 lutinos & 2 greens we bought from the breeder are exhibition budgerigars which are bigger than our pet ones & shes a lot larger than them too. havent seen her fly she just jumps from perch to perch

[Hezz]

Lots of exercise is the best thing, but as you haven't seen her fly, can she? Try her out over a soft landing in case she just can't. We rarely hear of a male budgie being overweight - it always seems to be the hens. I have to say, daz, she looks tubby to me too. Keep her away from oats (apparently they are higher in fat that other seeds) and feed more greens, less seed.

While these are the accepted way to slim down a budgie, I am having little luck with my tubby hen. She flies much better than she used to, but she hasn't lost weight.

[daz1965]

thanks for info. we had her out last night to see if she could fly she can a bit but not far. we are giving her green foods & will keep letting her out to fly to give her exercise

[Hezz]

What I tried with my hen was to remove her seed in the morning and give a variety of veggies and grass seed-heads. Hoping she would fill up on the greens, and not devour so much of the purchased seed. Not sure that it made any difference. Also took to "launching" her off my finger to fly the length of the house. This is how her flying improved, but I have gotten a little slack on making her fly around after I lost a bird a few months ago. I have been getting her back into it again lately.

Just keep on the flying and if she has a regular place she flies to and from, extend the distance bit by bit so she continues to stretch herself. She may well be lacking muscle tone too, and this needs to be built up gradually. Good luck with her.