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Fatty Teil

2K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  srtiels 
#1 ·
Hi! This is one of the Teils at the Greenbay Bird Rescue.
I am baby sitting two Teils for them at the moment.
This one I call Fatty, she was checked out and had something wrong with her and had to be put on medication for sometime.
But the impact of what was wrong with her must of meant she put on a lot of weight.
(She did come into the rescue large) But was not put on the scales that I know of.
Just after she came off her meds we weighed her at 169grams on the Rescue scales, three weeks later she was still 169grams. That was the day I took her home, four days later and my scales have her at 147grams. I must check both sets of scales to see that they are OK. I trust mine as they are with-in one gram of my vets scales, not that long ago.
She has not been eating that much and struggles to fly. Her poor flight could be due to the time she has spent in a small cage. But could also be because she is so big.
And yes she feels plump alright.
She is a Fatty for sure, but also a very large Tiel.
Here is a picture of her next to Henry to her Left and Tinkerbell to the right.


She is up for adoption.
Fatty is a gray pearl female, age unknown.
She seems to be at least semi hand tame and I have had her sitting on my shoulder preening. Fatty does a runner when I go to grab her, as she will not step up for me. Yesterday I stepped in as she was mouthing at Tinkerbell, poor Tink everybody gives her a hard time. Anyway as Fatty cannot maintain flight for long, I just follow her around till she lands on the floor, then pick her up. She does not bite or hiss at me! She stays in my spare large cage with the door open most of the time.
I had to take her out of the cage with the other Teil from the rescue as they were not getting along very well. This Teil has been caged most of the time as it seems to be a bit agro in general. Not tame.
 
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#3 ·
Thanks Spike!
Fatty is Ok I checked her weight just now and she is 131grams. So came back 4grams.
I had been watching her pooh just in case.
I discussed her weight loss with Lyn and we agree it was proberly moving her around upset her a bit and the pressure we put her under trying her in a cage with another Teil. She was stressed when i got them home, that is why I moved straight away.
She is a bit knocked around, her feathers have some damage, including one flight feather that seems to be upside down? I have had a quick look, but need Lyn to look while I hold her.
She's sitting on my shoulder right now and seems happy enough. Just if she gets with mine she hiss's a lot.
I thank you for the warning about she being sick.
I would not of even offered to bring her near my own Teils if I had any doubt. It was just a shock her loosing that sort of weight.
 
#4 ·
I just realised what weight I put above and have to correct myself.
She is still loosing weight.
Fatty has shed 31grams in a week. This is extreme, as I know she was sable while at the rescue.
She seems to be eating as I have her caged on her own. And I am changing the paper so I can see her pooh.
I have had her flying around and she is doing wing excersice in the cage.
I missed Lyn today, so will have to see if I can take her in to the vet again, just to be sure.
It is a sure thing that she did need to down size and as long as it is controlled it will do her a lot of good.
She is flying a lot better in just a week.
I am still not sure when she is going back to the rescue. It is a long story. But someone maybe trying to claim her and Lyn is sure it is not hers. It is not an uncommon problem and often comes down to a judgement call.
 
#6 ·
Fatty Teil has gone back to the rescue.
All good, tests came back clear.
Seems she went on a crash diet. We think this was a stress thing. She was eating but not that much. I thought the amount of pooh was showing that she was eating alright.
She has gone back into her old cage, and the young male next door was pleased to see her back. Then she settled close to him:love: or at least he fancies his chances. And they like each others company.
It was the other young female that went all sad on us. She did not like going back. But had perked up by the end of the day. I gave her some Paspalam (grass) in seed, as she liked that while with me.
 
#7 ·
I have Mommys Girl that is a pearl and now 9 years old. When in a smaller cage or set up for breeding she zooms up to 172 grams. She is a large framed bird and her normal weight is 125-135 grams. When I put her into a large flight to get her to move more and fly at first she will just drop like a stone. it takes a week to get her weight back down from 172 to approx 130 grams. So what you are describing is a normal weigh drop to a large bird that is under stress and encouraged to move alot and fly.

This type of bird needs a very large cage and very few perches that are widely spaced apart to encourage as much movement as possible. the food and water dishes should be placed on the cage floor and not near any perches so that she has to either fly down or climb down to them. Either full-spectrum lighting or access to sunlight is also benefical to larger tiels liver health. And some type of trace mineral supplements once a week added to the water.
 
#8 ·
Thank you.
I can do nothing about the cages at the rescue. They are just normal cages for the Teils (small).
But will make sure anybody who adopts her knows what she needs to help keep her weight down.
 
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