Is my GCC overeating? I’m scared he might get obese

My GCC Patrick is young, only about a few months, but I’m scared he’s overeating and might get obese in the long run. I want to have a feeding schedule but I’m at school 4 days a week and nobody at my home is able to do one feeding during the day. Should I try a feeding schedule, or should I not be worried about Patrick over eating?

bit confused as to how he is over-eating, do you just fill the bowl all the way up and leave until it's empty? Doing so can be potentially dangerous especially if he's on a seed diet right now the bowl can look full but in actuality it's just the seed shells in there with no actual food. If you offer him too much food and he eats it then that is for you to correct. He can only eat as much as you put in the food bowls.

Many people are out during the day, I for example would feed a bit of fruit in the morning, leaving it in for an hour then removing (which I would then eat as my breakfast) and replacing with pellets to eat during the day. I learnt how much he ate each day and left only that much in for him to eat. Then when I got home from work I would get a couple veggies and let him eat them whilst I had my dinner. After which he got a little bit of seed in to snack on until bedtime when the process would start again.

At first he was on a seed only diet so I would just put fresh seed each morning, when I got the pellets and began tempting him with fruit and veg he began to enjoy them, the fruit he was more weary of than veg which is why he had the fruit bowl in the morning as I knew he would be hungry enough to try it

Actually I have a nice diet that HAS seeds but has lots of colorful nutritional pellets. I notice when there’s lots of seed shells so I usually get rid of them and fill it up. Although he spends time next to his food bowl, this little dude is ACTIVE. He is jumping all over his cage all the time. He likes climbing to the top play area of his cage and he has lots of toys to play with. It is not a seed only diet but I do just pour food and he sits around his food bowl for about 10-20 minutes before he goes back to playing. His food (which I got from the breeder who breeds MANY birds that said this food was perfect for GCC) has little fruit and veggie pieces that he also LOVES. This extra information may help for any answers or advice you may give me

PatrickTheGCC said:

Actually I have a nice diet that HAS seeds but has lots of colorful nutritional pellets. I notice when there’s lots of seed shells so I usually get rid of them and fill it up. Although he spends time next to his food bowl, this little dude is ACTIVE. He is jumping all over his cage all the time. He likes climbing to the top play area of his cage and he has lots of toys to play with. It is not a seed only diet but I do just pour food and he sits around his food bowl for about 10-20 minutes before he goes back to playing. His food (which I got from the breeder who breeds MANY birds that said this food was perfect for GCC) has little fruit and veggie pieces that he also LOVES. This extra information may help for any answers or advice you may give me

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Great question and thanks for caring to check! I've a GCC too, she's roughly ~2 going on 3 early next year. Her activity levels haven't declined much, but of course a baby GCC is going to be more perky. I sometimes feel she's developed a clear "line" down her tummy (the obesity line) but checking carefully hasn't really verified that's what is. That said, bird's livers can become fatty in a way that isn't readily visible from over-abundance of food. I'd be curious to know which food brand you have? I use a mixture of Zupreem since it's condensed nutritionally-fortified pellets things + "real food" which for me is Golden Feast. While your bird is young and adventurous, try to wean them on a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables (search of course to ensure you don't feed them their systems can't tolerate) - I regret not actively prompting my fids to eat more things now that they're older and bit more staid in their preferences.

https://www.hartz.com/is-your-bird-overweight/

Read through that brief primer on how to check if your GCC is trending towards being over-weight, and what to do. You can move food bowls around, put snacks into foraging toys so that Patrick has to "work" for his food, and so on.

Keep us posted! Pictures are always welcome too.

sounds normal to me

think all that running around burns energy along with a very high metabolism. My bird would often shove his face in the bowl for a while when food got put in. Being foraging animals once they see a good source for food they will eat up as much as they can before going off to do whatever to find more food. Try making getting food into a little game, say placing a piece of paper over the bowl so he has to remove it to get the food, then try making it so he has to chew the paper to get at the food. Just little things to keep him active and his brain working. I tried to teach mine foraging by hiding little stockpiles of food in the cage but bless him he was not a good forager and never worked it out.

Try getting some fresh fruit and veg in there, you'd be amazed what a conure will do for a bit of apple. Outside of that you just need to work out how much he likes to eat and then just give out that much. It's more the type of foods he eats that will make him fat than the quantity (although a parrot eating non-stop all day will be fatter than one who nibbles and plays during the day)

You should have a scale to weigh your parrot a few times a week, and keep track of his weight. That way you will surely know of he is getting fat or loosing weight. They are pretty inexpensive on Amazon, and some come with a T stand and suction cup bottom.

Yes, weighing is critical. It can help you establish a good baseline AND alert you to sudden weight loss which can signal illness very early!

I try and offer fresh veggies daily and they gorge themselves but then I have a bowl of mostly pellets they can eat whenever they want. I don't have a problem with any of their weights. My black capped sticks around 78-80 grams lately and my pineapple GCC has been sticking around 68-70 grams. how much does your feathered buddy weigh? If you don't already have one, get a digital gram scale. I got mine at a smoke shop. Getting them to stay still takes practice lol

I'd get a scale if you're concerned, but birds tend to eat all throughout the day and are especially interested in newly filled bowls.

If he's only a few months old I'd worry more about him loosing weight from his changing surroundings, also he's growing....he needs lots of food to build muscles and brain cells and make colorful feathers etc.

I don't think I'd worry about obesity until he/she has reached sexual maturity 2-3 years.

clark_conure said:

I'd get a scale if your concerned, but birds tend to eat all throughout the day and are especially interested in newly filled bowls.

If he's only a few months old I'd worry more about him loosing weight from his changing surroundings, also he's growing....he needs lots of food to build muscles and brain cells and make colorful feathers etc.

I don't thing I'd worry about obesity until he/she has reached sexual maturity 2-3 years.

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or unless he ends up looking similar to this

Such a cute tubby birdie! A feathered Pillsbury Doughboy.

I was just re-reading this and...this jumped out, maybe you mis-wrote it.

"nobody at my home is able to do one feeding during the day. Should I try a feeding schedule, or should I not be worried about Patrick over eating?"

Leave food out!!!!!! birds have small stomachs, they peace meal throughout the day....snack here, snack there... If he's gorging himself....it might because of whatever arbitrary schedule you came up with.

Let the bird manage his intake, he will be fine!

good point by clark there

I'm theo nly person where I live and I work for 9 hours day, I would just leave the dry foods out when I left and replaced with fresh when I got back. If he wanted to moisten them he would dunk in the water which I would change when I got back. Very rarely will a bird eat so much they became fat when on a healthy diet. It's when left with just fatty seeds they will get fat