New... Over Whelmed... Any help GREATLY APPRECIATED

[GaleriaGila]

Welcome... LOVE your research orientation. Here's my quick 2 cents. Of course, all birds are different, but...

Just in case you want to increase pellets...
I love Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first and current avian vet recommended it. My bird loves the pellets now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry. He was eating pellets in a couple of days, and now I can feed a good variety of other stuff, knowing he has the pellets as a basic.

 

[Notdumasilook]

Gorgeous lil youngins!!. I go a lil bit of experience with feathered critters. GREAT idea to get a set of scales to keep up with their weights!! Changes in them can come so slow that we don't see a difference in them until there is a problem. That happened to me so I invested in a decent set of scales and weigh em once a week... perhaps overkill but it only takes a minute and I have plenty of time.
I go to great lengths when it comes to nutrition. As far as "portions".. unless you feed ONLY a pelleted diet and subtract what they drop it be tuff to know how much they actually eat. I just keep plenty of "good stuff" for em and let em eat till full. If there is an issue with weight loss .. say of 5% or more..its time for a vet visit. Getting overweight usually is from too much fatty foods which can screw up their liver and really cause them problems. I guess for decades feeding them table food and seed mixes with fatty sunflower seeds and peanuts was the culprit there. I feed pellets... Harrisons and Zupreem naturals which are damn good foods but in with it some Sunsations mx (seed/dried fruits/pellets) but on top of that.... a daily assortment of fresh fruits/veggies and maybe once a week some well cooked meats/scrambled eggs/fish. My critters eat better than me. Of course they want to taste what I have on my plates too.. and some of that is fine.. but gotta take care there. Nothing salty, greasy, no avocado, caffeine, or chocolate.
Now on getting 2 birds at one time.. who knows how that's gonna work. They might be too intent on each others attention to want to interact too much with you. Ive never gotten 2 birds at once and I hope you keep me posted on how it works out. Just getting 1 bird can be a hella challenge. Good luck with your new babies.

 

[Hawkmaid]

Welcome to the forums! I agree with the other posters: If your birds are eating pellets and fresh fruits and veggies, THAT IS AWESOME and don't change it if you can help it! My GCC prefers seeds and fruits and throws pellets everywhere. *rolls eyes* It's great fun. Anyway, your birds look great! Best of luck!

 

[Piasa]

It's tough with birds that are bonded to each other to convince them that there is room in their lives for you. You've gotten great advice on how to have small positive interactions with them to build love and trust.

I have a regular non-mutation green cheek. His normal weight is 70 grams. I weigh him in the morning after morning poop and before I give him food so I know it's just him that I'm weighing. A full crop can easily add a gram to his weight.

His healthy weight fluctuates from maybe 68-71 grams. When he has been sick, he lost weight - lowest was 65 grams. Maybe this can help you establish a baseline for your pyrrhuras. I've never had an overweight bird (even times when I fed only dry and sprouted seeds), so I can't advise on that end of the spectrum. I use a glass top kitchen scale I got for $20 on Amazon - then later noticed it's the same one my vet uses!