Am I Feeding Too Much?

[SharonC]

I'm wondering if I'm overfeeding Freddie. He gets about five to six tablespoons of birdie bread in the morning sometimes mixed with frsh veggies and/or fruit. The birdie bread is homemade containing all kinds of grain, fruit veggies, ground pellets. He gets five to six tablespoons of his seed mix in the afternoon, and then "people food" for supper...usually an appropiate meat, and cooked veggies. Most of the food is eaten, although with the seed mix, he just picks out what he wants....I don't have a scale so I don't know how much he weighs, but he's looking a little plump...

 

[greycloud]

Zons are one those parrots that tend to suffer from obesity. That is alot of birdies bread! If it were me, I would provide pellets 24/7 in a separate dish. Morning I would feed fruits, veggies, brown rice. Afternoon, a little bit of seed. Dinner, tiny amount of protein, very easy on the potatos or starches and generous with veggies. Hope this helps.

 

[SharonC]

Thanks...that does help!

 

[Rrrma]

Do you have a scale to weigh him on? That has helped a lot with adjusting my birds' diets. He definitely looks a bit pudgy to me, but looking isnt a really good way of telling. That is a lot of food though!

 

[JawzX]

yeah, seems like a lot to me too. Cody's "diet" plan is pellets 24/7, about 4 tbsp of bird glop (squash, brown-bread, carrots, brocoli) in the morning, and another 2 in the evening, small amount of people-food in the evening, just a little sampling of what's being eaten at the table, and seeds as treat/reward only. Granted, he's lost nearly 100 grams on this diet, but it's a fraction of what Freddie's getting... I'd definitely cut back on the carbs/starches and seeds as greycloud suggsted.

I found a cheap digital kitchen scale at a local store for $29, and Amazon.com has the same model for only $24. It has a tare function to you put a perch or bowl/basket on it, re-zero and then weigh the bird, easy-peasy!

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0007GAWRS/ref=mp_s_a_6?qid=1284442155&sr=8-6[/ame]