Underweight Green Cheek

[ValerieM1230]

Hi, I have a green cheek conure who is underweight.She's on seed diet, and I give her fruits and veggies every day(she doesnt alway eat them).I'm trying to get her on a pelleted diet, but its taking a while.Ive been giving her vitamin supplements for about a month now and her weight hasn't improved.Also the feathers on her chest almost look chewed or something, although it doesn't look like shes chewing them.I dont really have the money to bring her to the vet at this time.She means the world to me and the thought of loosing her makes me so sad so if you think shes HAS to go to vet I will make a way.Any help would be great.

 

[MonicaMc]

Is she underweight or just thin? If she's thin but healthy, that's fine. I have a male cockatiel that weighs under the average weight of cockatiels. I can't get him to gain weight, even though he's on the same diet as all the other tiels! He's an older bird (over 15 years old) that I've had for 7, going on 8 years this year.

You may find some tips on converting her over to a better diet in this thread.
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/23367-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html


Ratty looking feathers can usually be taken care of with a good bath or spritz.

 

[Echo]

How much does she weight??

Here are a few ways to help her accept new foods.

-Soak pellets in a bit of juice or warm water (little at a time as they will spoil fast).
-Make scramble eggs (only 1 full egg, the rest egg whites) and add ground/mashed veggies then sprinkle ground pellets.
-Take a slice of apple and roll it in ground pellets and seeds.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

if you have a food processor, you could put some pellets in along with some peeled apple or other favorite fruit (1/3 fruit and 2/3 pellets, or even start out 50/50). give them a quick chop/grate pulse or two or three so that they are mixed pretty well.

u can also try to warm up some soaked pellets. soak in a bit of coconut/almond milk and warm up for just 2 to 4 seconds and please be sure they are warm (NOT HOT) when you give them to birdie.

i recently went through a whole crazy food cycle with Pritti, and finally got him to eat pellets again after stopping completely. Now he's on 80-90% table/fridge food per A-vet's orders, but he will eat the pellets too without disguising them anymore.

keep us posted. good luck.