Lisa Shea Forums Parakeets General Parakeet Chat Wanda Has To Shed Some Grams

I weighed Wanda today and I was STUNNED when I looked at the scale. She weighs 51 grams!!!!

That's huge, no offense to Wanda lol, but she's REALLY fat and she's not even an english budgie, so she's waay over weight. She's a real "perch potato" too. All she does is sit on her comfy perch and she just stares into space looking out the window, she never comes out, only to vandalize lol and that's another story.

She's been so bad these days. Just recently on Friday, I was sitting across the room watching tv and she was out "playing" with her toys. I wasn't quick enough to stop her, I caught her at the corner of my eye, she dropped a big wooden barbell toy right on Homer's foot Poor guy didn't even see it coming, he was just preening himself, not paying attention. She got him real good too, he was bleeding, it clotted really fast which was good. It's a deep cut and it's gonna take some time to heal. Now I can't leave out any big toys with her around, unless I'm standing in front of the cage watching her. She's a horror I tell ya and she actually aims for the other birds too, she COMPLETELY lost her marbles.

So starting today, I'm gonna try to get her weight down. I've been making her fly around the room on and off today, I just chase her off lol I hate doing that to her, I know she doesn't like it, but it's for her own good. I would let her climb a ladder, but she'd just unhook it and throw it on the floor lol. I'm already limiting her seed intake, I only give them a couple table spoons a day and they get veggies throughout the day. I knew she was heavy, but not this heavy and I'm so worried about tumors and egg binding and at her weight, I gotta be so careful And I'm so mad that I let her gain so much weight without even realizing it.

So today is the official day Wanda will start her diet program. I'm gonna weigh her every week and see how much she looses. Wish me luck that she looses some grams!

Btw, if you don't own a scale, I really suggest getting one. They're pretty cheap and they're really helpful when it comes to monitoring your birds health, weight says a lot. You can get an idea ahead of time if your bird is sick. If they're loosing weight, that's usually one of the first signs they're ill. If I didn't have the scale, I would of never known how fat Wanda is, lol I just keep insulting her. I just bought one a couple weeks ago and regret not getting one the day I got Bernie (3 years ago.)

They come in different colors which is pretty cool
http://www.amazon.com/Escali-Primo-Digit...9781&sr=8-1

Oh and this is Wanda for those of you who don't know Wanda (Don't be fooled by that innocent face lol)

Oof! Poor Wanda! Well, hopefully her diet program will help.

To get her to fly around, you could lure her with a treat. Does she like nutriberries? Or anything really. Just not something fatty. Hold out your arm or hand and have her fly to it to get a reward, whatever that may be. I do this with rocky, although for a diff reason; I'm trying to get him to learn how to fly. He's doing well so far! With this technique he's practiced enough to fly a couple feet without swerving all over and crash landing. I started off closer, and then slowly pulled away farther and farther... You might have to actually do that with Wanda to keep her interest.

Yeah, you know what, that's not a bad idea. It'll teach her to come to me and maybe I can get Harriet to follow (she follows her everywhere) lol. I've been trying to get Harriet to fly to my hand, but if she sees Wanda flying to me, she may also. That's pretty good, she'll loose weight and I can train them at the same time, why didn't I think of that lol thanks Justin

No problem! I read that somewhere that someone used it to train their keet, but I figured it would also be useful in other ways. It works!

ozzy weighs in at a "stout" (according to the vet, LOL!) 48 gr. she may have some english in her though, he said she was " big boned!!" LMBO! she is full figured (haha) but i have to say, wanda is somewhat , rounder than ozz. (no offense intended) seeing wanda's pic has made me realize exactly how "stout" ozzy is. a weight aside... she is a beautiful bird, she and ozzy paired up would be like the women in that movie (rats, can't remember the name) who snap one day, pair up and go cross country creating trouble and drive off the cliff in the cop chase at the end. only ozzy and wanda wouldn't be stopping their reign of terror!! lol!

ROFL I just can't help it Ant. Every time I see Wanda the bulldozer come in and clear off the top of the cage it cracks me right up! Some of those toys look heavy too! She's such a character
I guess she has gotten a little plump huh? Another thing that might be good exercise is chasing a jingle ball around on the floor? Levi loves it when we roll the ball for him and he runs after it and sometimes try to roll it back. Or 2 of us will roll it back and forth and he chases it. Sooo funny to see them waddle run! haha
Good luck with the diet. Keep us posted on her progress. Should be interesting. Any more pudgie budgies out there? Maybe you could get a weight watchers group going!

I know it probably isn't a molt, but heehee!
Wanda looks like she's getting some extra molts in there!


Grams oh grams...
Missy is 35 grams.
She is just getting extra molty teehee.

And a humungous ROFL at 0:53

he drops his ladder!!
That's a classic!

aw chunky monkey! She puts Edgar to shame and he has rolls! lol
I do the flight thing with Ed too. Edgar ball! He actually gets into the game. It has helped him take off a few grams and he is super duper tame too which was a nice bonus. I also have them run on the floor to exercise their legs. My hubby got a 4 foot long ladder. I hook it to the bottom of the cage and they run up it. It is too heavy for them to lift and push off.

I think it was JoeJoe who put Zoey on the top of the door, and taught her to fly that way.