# Overweight cockatiel?



## Jenny (Jul 18, 2009)

Hey guys! Longtime member, rare poster 

Moose, my cockatiel, is gaining weight and it concerns me. He's always been on the larger side for a cockatiel (hence the name Moose lol) but in the past 5-6 months he's gained a substantial amount of weight. There has been no change of diet, he's been _more_ active in his new cage than he used to be, but the weight is still there. When I first noticed about 2 months ago, I started limiting his food and giving more pellet than seed (he was on a 50/50 ratio of Roudybush and Goldenfeast seed, now it's 75/25 pellet to seed) and giving him far less, but he's managed to gain MORE weight!! 

I was curious if anyone had any tips on what I can do to help him lose weight, before I visit the vet. He's in the bird room with 6 other birds, so he has company. He's become very crotchety in the past year or so, and no longer lets me pet him through the bars nor will he come out of the cage for any reason now. I can still kiss his head through the bars and he sings and whistles and loves attention, but no touchy now  Moose is about 10-11 years old? So I don't know if part of it is age, or if this could be a symptom of a more serious health concern?

Thanks for the help, guys!


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I see you are in W. Palm Beach...so you are close to the ocean.

Below are a couple of illus. Use the first one to check the adbomen to see if you can see fat thru the skin...and look at the droppings to see if they are normal. When a tiel gets overweight this can lead to liver problems.

The 2nd illus (click for a larger size, and can save and print out) shows a great suplolement remedy you can make up for all the birds. Since you live near the ocean you can get 1 quart of clear, high tide water. add 1/4 rsp. of Lugols iodine or Liqui-Kelp: An internet search should give you results such as...http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp?id=WO-1014

The quart of ocean water with the liqui-Kelp is your stock solution. You would use 1 tsp. of the stock solution to one cup of fresh drinking water. Keep remainder of solution refrigerated.

Larger and obese birds benefit from a supplement of trace minerals. Diet changes should be done over several weeks...and it ususally rakes several months to start seeing actual weight loss.


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## Jenny (Jul 18, 2009)

Thanks, Susanne. He's definitely obese - I can see the fat through the skin, and he does have "breasts" on either side of his keel bone. It's not too bad so far, but it's getting worse rather than better. I had hoped, after 2 months, he'd at least level out on the weight gain rather than keep increasing  I'll look into the supplement. Right now, he's getting Missing Link in his food daily, for that reason, I'll look into yours as well. I just don't trust the beach water, honestly, as it's all such touristy beaches around here and there's trash in the water on a regular basis :/ I'll try making it with the Instant Ocean instead


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