I have my two birds for almost a year now but I never weighed them (not that I have a scale to begin with). Does anyone know what is the average or ideal weight for a keet?

The younger but more dominant keet loves to eat and she looks like a Pillsbury dough bird (or an English budgie). Remember that commercial? The older one, however, loves to fly and exercise, and has to constantly yield to the younger bird when it comes to feeding time. In fact, she needs to run to another seed bowl everytime the younger bird approaches. So, she looks really slim but muscular from all the exercise, kind of looking like an Olympic athlete. LOL.

I wonder if I should separate them for a while even though they kind of okay with each other, when not fighting for food or attention.

hi chirpy
i copied this from a previous discussion about weight, this quote comes from sylv:

Between 28 and 56 grams is the usual weight for a keet anywhere between these two is o.k.I think it depends on the size and age too.English keets are at the higher end.
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I personally have never weighed esso and doubt i would ever bother with it. I have read that you should be able to palpate the top of their breast bone, and if you cannot, then your keet may be overweight. ...
You obviously know your keets very well - so you probably will have good intuition as to what to do with them .... I would think as long as there are at least 2 seed dishes available at any time, then i would not worry about one not getting enough food. I guess the other question is should you alter the diet if you really think the younger bird is getting obese, and that might be something to consider. What do you do for their diet now? let us know what you end up doing!

Thanks for the prompt reply, Esso's mommy. My birds are on an 80/20 diet of seeds/veggies, respectively. The young bird looks fat because she loves to eat and does not like to fly as much even though she wants to be out of the cage, particularly when she sees her friend is outside flying happily.

Funny thing is that the young bird always want to sample both seed dishes and picks out the choicest seeds. So, the old bird usually ends up being chased away, but she seems to do this "voluntarily". I say that facetiously because it is like second nature to her now ... when the young bird is only half way near her, she hops off the dish and starts heading for the other dish. Honestly, I believe she is afraid of getting pecked.

One time, when she was eating, but the young bird was locked outside the cage but looking in, she just kept eating with a smirk on her face.
LOL!!