Have you ever weighed your bird before?
If yes, great! But how often do you weigh them? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
If you said no, continue reading to see why weighing your bird regularly is one of the most important ways you can keep track of their health.
The easiest way that I’ve found to weight my birds is to use a small postal scale (that uses grams as one of the options). It was around 10 dollars on Amazon, and can easily be found other places for a similar price. I set my scale on the dining room table, and set it to “grams” for mass.
You always want to weigh your bird when they’re on an empty stomach. The best time of day is always right after they wake up, and after “morning poops”, which tend to be large ones (especially if you have a conure!). This will establish a “baseline” weight so you can always monitor at other times a day to see the change due to eating/drinking.
I have trained my birds to “step down” onto the scale, but you can also use a T-perch on top of the scale (just be sure to “tare”/”zero” out the weight of the T-perch before you begin).
I jot down my bird’s name and weight in my phone’s digital calendar, since it can travel with me anytime I need to provide the information to an Emergency Vet or my regular Avian Vet. For consistency, I weigh my birds twice a week to have an idea if there’s and loss or gain that may be significant and show signs of early illness.
There’s truly no such thing as a healthy “weight range” for each parrot species, but you’ll likely see many charts/tables online you can reference. However, your Avian Vet can do a well-check appointment to do a physical exam along with some blood tests to let you know if your bird’s weight is, indeed, healthy. Your personal bird’s healthy weight may be slightly over or under any “suggested” charts you see online, so don’t fret! Always have your Avian Vet check when you ever have a concern.
Did you know that even 10% weight loss of your bird’s total weight can be signs of immediate or impending illness?
My cockatiel, Cooper, for example, weighs on average around 88g. My GCC weighs around 65g (he’s small for his species but the Avian Vet has deemed him “just fine.”)
That means that if Cooper got down to 79g, I’d be VERY concerned and make an IMMEDIATE vet appointment.
But, if you never weigh your bird, will you even know about that small amount of change/loss? No.
Please weigh your birds, not just to know, but to be informed of their health.
*I am not an Avian Veterinarian, Specialist, or otherwise, and this blog is my personal opinion based on my own research and advice by my Avian Vet. If you have questions or concerns, always reach out to your Avian Vet prior to making any decisions for your bird and its health/wellbeing. Busy Bird Toys and its employees are not responsible for any loss, illness, injury, or death related to any advice provided on this webpage.
