Hello
I have a 1 yr old budgie. He needs to loose weight by eating kibble that the vet gave us. Any ideas on how to get him to eat the kibble more. cause the system were using isnt working.
What do you mean by "kibble"? What exactly is it that your vet gave you? What is the name of the brand and what is the name of the product? "Kibble" isn't a term that is typically used in the avian world, so I have no idea what you are talking about, though I'm assuming it is some kind of "pellets", but I need to know exactly what the name of the product and brand is, a photo of the packaging would be useful, and definitely a photo of your budgie.
Is your vet a certified avian vet or at least a qualified avian vet? Or is this a general vet or an"exotics" vet that "sees birds"? This will make a huge difference in the chosen treatments...And also, along with a photo of your budgie, please list his/her weight as taken by the vet (in grams), as well as how old he/she is.
And finally, how long have you had your budgie (in comparison to how old he/she is)? And most importantly, what was your budgie's daily diet from the time you got him until now? What were you feeding he/she, how much at each feeding, and how many feedings per day? Or were you just free-feeding your budgie, meaning he/she had a full bowl all the time?
I'm an English and American budgie owner of 31 years and breeder of 20 years, and I also have a background and education in animal and avian science, health, and medicine, so I can help you with not only his/her weight issues but also transitioning him/her from old diet to new, but I need to know this information first. I can tell you right off the bat that typically if a budgie is overweight it is because they have been free-fed a daily diet of simply seed mix and probably millet sprays and stick treats, like honey, nut, and fruit seed sticks as treats in combination with millet sprays. These treats are often given daily or every other day in addition to a constantly full bowl of seed mixes 24 hours a day. In addition to the parakeet's diet they are also usually either locked inside a cage most of their lives and get no daily flying time or exercise, or their wings have been continually clipped so that if they are allowed daily out of cage time they still get no exercise, instead this time is spent simply sitting on top of their cage, on their owner's shoulder, etc. This is just typically the situation, there are exceptions and I'm not necessarily saying this is the case with your budgie, I don't know and that's why I'm asking you to answer the questions I've asked.
It's important to know that there are 2 components to a bird being overweight, diet and daily activity/exercise level. And with budgies it is unfortunately a combination of both, as they are seen as the cheap "starter bird" or "beginner bird", they are often kept on very small cages because they are small birds and this makes it impossible for them to exercise, they are very often the bird in households with multiple bird species that get the least amount of out of cage time and exercise if any, they are often purchased from big-box pet stores and are not hand-raised as babies, therefore they are not hand-tamed when they are first brought home, resulting in their wings being continually clipped, often for their entire lives, so they never get flight time, and they are often fed cheap seed mixes bought in grocery stores or at Walmart instead of higher quality, more expensive pellet and/or healthy seed mixes because people are not willing to spend more money on their diets than they paid for their bird. It's unfortunate.
Transitioning foods can be challenging, it takes time and patience and is really just about finding what works with your bird specifically. I can help you with this once I know your bird's history and what we're going from and what we're going to food-wise.
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
