Just an old man and his parrots

This is Axel. Yes I know he is fat. A little bit of a back story.
Most of last 2yrs I have been in and out of the hospital. So I had a freind taking care of my animals. I am doing good now. I have retired, so I have plenty of time to be with my creatures. My health is so much better. So hopefully I will stay out of the hospital.
As for Axel he gets some chop made out of veggies and a little of sweet potato. And in the evening he get a little pellets. He is flighted so I get him out and have him fly around my apartment. I will put him on a perch in the livingroom, and run into the bedroom and have him chase me. ( no laughing). I'm 6'x2" 280lbs. No I don't have a video of it. Lol my question is besides cutting back on his food and having him fly around anything else I can do to get him back in shape?.
Thanks

Welcome to you and the flock! Axel is an adorable bub. Glad you are feeling better, and able to spend more time with them. Does he have any toys that he likes to play with? You may be able to experiment with different toys and see what he likes to beat up, throw around and otherwise abuse . Playing counts as exercise, particularly if they get into it. Training is another tool - doing tricks, have them fly to you, etc are all activity that doesn’t involve eating (use a low calorie treat for training). I love the description of him chasing you lol. Puzzle/foraging toys are a great option - make them work a bit for some of their calories and keep their brains busy too. With mine, I did little things like not having the food and water close together....they have to move around to get to things in their cages, none of this sit in one spot for everything and snooze between snacks! Anyways....look forward to hearing more about your adventures with the creatures!

Welcome to you and Axel, thanks for joining! Best wishes for good health and enjoyment in retirement!

Any additional movement will help Axel consume more calories. If you don't have small table-top scale calibrated in grams, might be good investment. Tracking Axel's weight is helpful for determining how much he has to lose and also detects potential illness with significant reduction without a cause.

The picture of Axel on the perch, he is on his door perch. Just above the picture is. ALL his toys. The bottom 1/3 of the cage is empty because he hang upside down and flaps his wings and yells when he's in a good mood. All I give him all kinds of things he likes to destroy. I give him an empty water bottle he rips the lid off and throws the bottle around his cage. I will put up a picture of his cage so you can see how big it is. It's a king cage corner cage. 4ftx5ft x7ft. I can fit inside it when I move his toys around.

Welcome to you!

Welcome to Parrotforum!

Take care of underfeeding your Parrot as they can perceive this as a lack of available food and stress about it. Limited food as a Chick has been documented as the root of behavioral problems.

Increasing 'out of cage' time i.e. being active is the best path for weight loss.

that's a cute pink perch potato!!!
Try to make him move and use the cage as much as possible. Teach Foraging.
Create a jungle gym over the cage. I use ceiling hooks and fishing line to hang rope hoops, rope spiral, swings and bird cargo nets abd ladders above the cage, and hang down so csn grab with beak and start climbing. All along I have treat sticks, or millet, yucca chips, or shredders or things for them to find or do. The treats are in things that make them really work to get at.

I will watch for that thanks.
This is how I feed him. In the morning he gets chop of so can. I use different veggies each day.
I let him have that for about an hr. Then I take that away
Then midday I give him his pellets. I give him just enough so by evening he still has a little bit left.
I cut out all nuts for now. I give him a little bit of fruit 2 to 3 times a week.

I always wondered how they make these. Now i know



Welcome