Alexandrine Weights

[Ian]

Does anyone regularly weigh their birds?

My female is 210g and the male is 328g

 

[khaiqha]

My 8 month old male has consistently weighed 210g. Is your male visually bigger than your female also?

 

[Ian]

Yes he is...massively so in fact, his main body is twice her size.

I think he grew quite a lot in years 1-3 but I didn't really notice at the time.

 

[khaiqha]

Ah ok I was kinda worried lol. I had an irn who was a runt compared to other irns. Best guess was that she was probably inbred to get her color, which made me sad. I haven't seen anyone else's alexes to comparemine to. I guess mine still has some growing to do.

 

[Ian]

Yeah, they do vary a bit by subspecies but yours is quite far from adult. The tail feathers get really long in the moults in year 2 and 3 too.

Mines been eating a lot of stuff like chicken, steak and egg since he was a baby. I know some people don't really agree with that but he won't take no for an answer. If I don't get the chance to give them anything else I normally give them both a scrambled egg a day.

Funny you should say that about the IRN. I had one that was pure IRN female and 3/4 the size of an Alex....I also had a male with incredibly deep colours that wasn't a great deal bigger than a budgie. I think there's quite a lot of range in ringies.

 

[Pedro]

Ian i have to jump in here & tell you that you really are shorting your birds life with their diet. It would benefit both your birds to give them a well balance diet.

I just sold an alex baby to a customer who had lost her companion alex. I asked what she fed her bird & was absolutely shocked. His main diet was parrot seed, beer & salted peanuts every day, was allowed any junk food she was eating. And she thinks he died from giving him avocado. I told her i couldn't possible sell her one of my babies if she continued to feed the new baby like that.

Ian i do hope that you can change your babies to a more healthy diet of sprouts, fruit & veg. Some pellets, raw nuts. A cooked chicken bone & eggs should only be given once every couple of weeks. There is a good chance your male has a high reading of chlorestle.

 

[Ian]

Hi Pedro

Sorry that wasn't clear...he gets those bits as treats....his basic foods are all the usual 'good stuff'. I used to live where ringies/alexs are wild and provide them with their natural food.

I do let them eat our food though (as long as it's not parrot danger food/oversalted etc). There are loads of people out there who would massively improve their relationship with the bird and also teach the bird to accept more variety in the diet if they let them taste everything they eat.

 

[Ash]

My young female weighs about 200g while my male weighs about 235g.
He does look bigger than her but not by much. His beak is much larger than hers though/