Need help with gaining weight

[mmb]

Hello everyone!

Not my first time having birds but first time having a GCC. A month ago, picked up my GCC. Unfortunately though, my youngest sister decided to try to take my bird out of the cage without permission and the bird tried to fly out but due to unfortunately having her wings clipped, landed wrong and broke her leg. Fortunately, it’s healing nicely according to the vet. The main issue is that while already being small when I got him, healing has made my bird lose weight. The vet recommended increasing proteins in the diet, which initially worked and she gained 3 g in a week. However, this week, they lost 2 g. I’ve tried giving boiled chicken and eggs (recommendation by vet: both hard boiled and scrambled), and sneaking egg food and oat groats into the food. I’m calling the vet again today but I wanted to know if anyone had any recommendations to help my bird gain weight?

 

[GaleriaGila]

Yikes! So many parrot owners face the opposite challenge... losing weight.
I don't have much advice other than to keep conferring with your vet, maybe use treats in playtime, maybe try new treats. Also, just MAYBE the weight gain will come when the leg is all healed and things are normal again.
Anyway, thanks for sharing, and good luck!

 

[mmb]

Yikes! So many parrot owners face the opposite challenge... losing weight.
I don't have much advice other than to keep conferring with your vet, maybe use treats in playtime, maybe try new treats. Also, just MAYBE the weight gain will come when the leg is all healed and things are normal again.
Anyway, thanks for sharing, and good luck!

Thank you!

Today I tried something new where I had her perch on my hand while she ate and it seemed to pick up her appetite (it’s the most she ate since the injury).

Before the injury, we had him in the same cage as their sibling and they used to socially eat together (I included a picture of the two together before the injury, the pineapple is the sibling). I’m wondering if maybe my bird feels safer eating with a companion or something similar.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Precious! I'm so glad they have you to care for them.

Hey, are those Harrison's pellets? That's what the Rickeybird eats!

 

[mmb]

Precious! I'm so glad they have you to care for them.

Hey, are those Harrison's pellets? That's what the Rickeybird eats!

Thank you!

And we feed them Zupreem pellets (I added a little bit of seed to the cup to make it more enticing when we first got them)

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

I've heard good things about feeding Oatmeal. High in fiber, protein and carbs, it might help your fid gain that much anticipated weight Good luck and keep us updated! .

 

[Kor446]

Harrison's High Potency mix has worked wonders on my GCC. She likes them, and they have helped her recover from twice losing 10 gms. That's not a typo. They have an even denser product called High Potency Mash that I have mixed in but only occasionally.

 

[Botsari]

I'd recomend trying "birdy bread" - basically a baked concoction like muffins that is intended to entice birds into eating good stuff by being more exciting. It is a classic, tried and true parrot feeding strategy. You can give them as much or as little of this with their pellets as required to tweak their enthusiasm and supplement their diet.

I literally cook mine in silicone muffin cups, but most peple just use a regular baking pan. This has the advantage that you can make it a little different each week until you zero in on something they really like, and/or adjust on the fly depending on what you are shooting for. Everyone has a different recipe - it really doesn't matter. For example, if you want them to eat more veggies this will do the trick. If you want more protien and calories, adjust accordingly. Eggs, shells sometimes included in a blender for the Calcium, are usually a part so you can adjust for protein. For example the last batch I made for my african greys had carrots, zuchinni, kale, corn, oats, peas, dried cranberries, a very few shelled sunflower seeds, and 1/2 of a banana added to the "flour" part of the mix. The banana, eggs and shells get blended, everthing thing else goes in whole or in the case of the kale, zuchinni and carrots grated or chopped. Basically if you were to put in the salt and a little sugar that you of course leave OUT for the birds it would probbly make for a pretty nice, if a bit rococo, artisanal mufin! The flour last time was about 1/2 almond flour, 1/4 whole wheat flour, and 1/4 pellets ground up in a small blender until they are also the consistency of flour. I feel like if you JUST wanted to get them to eat the pellets this would still work with %100 "pellet flour". Very sneaky! Add eggs and water to taste. Prep in about 20 munites. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Freeze the overflow - for me this was enough for about 3 weeks.

I was worried that my young African Grey was a little lean and over-focused on eating what he judged to be the "premier" item at any given time. But they REALLY love this stuff. Even most of the small crumbs dissappear. I think it is the variety - there is something different I guess in every bite, so this excites the forager in them. They still eat the pellets, but when they have some of this avaialble they usually go for it first with gusto. If you want a precise recipe I can post something, but it is basically a version of a muffin recipe without added salt, sugar (other than the added fruit) or dairy stuff. And of course they learned to say "want some birdly bread" in record time. It seems this is currently the goto phrase they are using for "how about some chow, man!"

 

[Kimmb615]

I've heard good things about feeding Oatmeal. High in fiber, protein and carbs, it might help your fid gain that much anticipated weight Good luck and keep us updated! .

Do you cook the oats or offer them raw with the food ? Thanks

 

[Botsari]

Do you cook the oats or offer them raw with the food ? Thanks

Uncooked, except the baking, which will probably soften them up a little. Whole oats, not oatmeal. Most birds eat the raw oats as is, so should be fine. This is pretty much what others do as well. Some people use a LOT of oats - like equal volume to the "flour" - for example:

So you can make these more like "seed cakes" (which makes me think of "The Hobbit") than muffins. This is something I may try next time. But in the end it may depend on what your birds like. For very small birds maybe chop the oats up even smaller beforehand. Chunks of things are good, but they shouldn't be so big that the bird just eats around them.

Basically almond flour and pellet flour are low carb, and whole wheat is high carb - oats are in the middle. So you can also adjust the carb content depending on what your bird needs, hopefully not just what they want.

 

[Kiwi&Zeus]

Hello everyone!

Not my first time having birds but first time having a GCC. A month ago, picked up my GCC. Unfortunately though, my youngest sister decided to try to take my bird out of the cage without permission and the bird tried to fly out but due to unfortunately having her wings clipped, landed wrong and broke her leg. Fortunately, it’s healing nicely according to the vet. The main issue is that while already being small when I got him, healing has made my bird lose weight. The vet recommended increasing proteins in the diet, which initially worked and she gained 3 g in a week. However, this week, they lost 2 g. I’ve tried giving boiled chicken and eggs (recommendation by vet: both hard boiled and scrambled), and sneaking egg food and oat groats into the food. I’m calling the vet again today but I wanted to know if anyone had any recommendations to help my bird gain weight?

Once I increased weight of my sun conure as the vet felt it’s better for her. Things that she did it for me are fresh sugar cane, nuts and dried fruits. She did not eat all varieties so it was a process to find out all she liked. So I started giving her these as treats for some time and it helped. After her weight increase I stopped giving the extra stuff I had started other than on rare occasion now. This did make her into a temperamental mean witch for some time. I looked at it as her de-addiction drive and I bear the pain proudly all over my hands and face.