# Obese Bird -- Pigeon Weight Loss Diet?



## Raisindust (Apr 8, 2010)

So I've got this new bird, Clarence. Love him, he's beautiful and though at the moment he's not at all tame he's actually okay with handling once I grab him, I feel like once he calms down he'll be an absolute doll.

He had his first vet appointment since arriving in my household the other day and they said he's healthy except for one thing -- he's very obese!

I had my suspicions as he's always felt very heavy for his size, which is smaller than Bleu. Bleu is way bigger than him, a very good weight, 300 grams; this guy is just above half her size and is 330!

Vet reccomended far less seeds, far more veggies, so yesterday I went to the store and bought romaine lettuce, carrots, brocolli ( finding out now that that isn't good for birds -- does someone here know why? ), kale, cucumber, strawberries ( i'll only give them a little just to tease them into the idea of eating veggies rather than a mostly-seeds diet like he was on before I got him ), and a few other things. I'll be mixing these with the harrison's I've got, and some seeds to at least see if that'll help get them into it.

Should veggies be served chopped or whole?

Important note:: he is an inside bird, and though he's not SUPER active he at least tries to follow Bleu around, which means he gets decent enough excersize as she's crazy and all over the place all the time. Don't worry, I'm not going to work him out by chasing him around the room or anything ( at least, not intentionally.. it does happen sometimes just as i'm moving around the room regularly! )

If he insists on eating only seeds, considering mashing it and syringe feeding some veggies for now 'cause I really can't have him eating ONLY the seeds.

Does anyone here have a very plump bird? What do you feed? How do you lower their weight? How quickly does it work?

Thank you very much!


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## Raisindust (Apr 8, 2010)

Their breakfasts look so good they made ME hungry.. Clarence seems very intrigued by it, that's good! Bleu is more obsessed with watching me at the moment to care-- ooh, she walked over to the bowl now. Yay!

And she's actually eating the harrison's! Woah! Improvement!


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Harrisons is great. We feed our pigeon, Phoebe, Zupreem cockatiel as she would not eat Harrisons. Rowdy bush is also good, any low fat pelleted diet. She stays at about 291 grams. Glad you are working with your birds as obesity kills. Phoebe had to have surgery for internal xanthomatosis or fatty tumors growing inside her and nearly died because we used to feed her treat seeds and lots of peanuts so we don't give her anything now but the pellets prescribed by Dr Speer. We also get her out every day for exercise as she is getting signs of heart disease as many caged pet birds do. Keep us posted on how your birds are doing.


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## Raisindust (Apr 8, 2010)

My birds aren't caged birds, they're allowed free around the house ( unless the house counts as a cage.. they fly around a ton though! ). I only put them in their cages for meal times and bed time, and once i move out, where I probably won't be bringing my dog with me, just the birds, probably not even then.

He flies around a ton, I think Bleu is definitely kicking him back into shape. Bleu doesn't really eat any of the veggies but luckily she isn't the fat one, as Clarence gobbles up whatever I put in with him, which is great! Even Harrison's! So I'll stop seeds entirely with him and do ONLY veggies / harrisons.

He also paces the front of the cage at bed time too, probably because he wants to be with Bleu, but unfortunately I can't put them together in the same place just yet as Bleu is just kind of 'ehh' about his presence for now. The pacing also helps with excersize 

Hopefully Bleu gets to that point. She pecks at Harrisons and kind of eats some of it but she definitely doesn't want much to do with it. may check out rowdy bush if I can't get her to the harrisons, thanks for the reccomendation!


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Ok that is rediculous. A pigeon is a seed eater by nature, nothing u can NOR should do about that. So tell me what breed it is? Anyway 300 to 450 is a good weight for a pigeon. 
Racers give their birds about an ounce of feed PER DAY. If you feel, u can give a bit more but theres no way it will make him obese unless he has an underlying medical condition that your vet has no clue about. Do NOT starve the bird. You can give minced spinach, or dandilion or leaf lettuce or even chickweed. But you MUST give him those mixed seeds in a day, if u want to help him lose a bit, (jury still out on whether he needs to) Can u post pics of both birds? Give him a smaller mixed seed mix such as sneaky mix or candy mix which consists of canary, budgie and poppy or rape seeds, even flax mixed in. Its basically a glorified super canary or budgie breeder mix. Seeds to limit but NOT eliminate are saflower, sunflower, corn and peas. They are more fattening. 

Give lots of mineral grits and calcium for digestion. Also encourage but dont stress the bird with excersize. You can feed about an ounce in a sitting twice a day, watch how much he takes, and when he drinks his water, remove the seed till next feed so he is not free feeding. See how that goes. Again, still not sure just because of weight that he is obese. What is the age of the bird, weanlings are usually heavier than parents, till they lean out a bit. They are programmed that way to have extra meat on the bones until they learn to eat on their own, so a bit more info would be helpful.


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## Raisindust (Apr 8, 2010)

I'm not entirely sure the breed OR age of the pigeon; I picked him up from Pidgebee who got him without knowing anything about him either. I don't think he's a very young bird, but he also doesn't look old either. He looks like he could be some sort of owl-type pigeon, as he has the fluffy neck and shorter beak, but also has very feathery feet which I don't see often in owls. I have a picture but it's really bad as I don't have a proper camera at the moment and my phone doesn't like pictures.

Note:: This was the day I got him, he does NOT have that much food in with him regularly. I just wanted to make sure he was actually eating because the day I got him he was extremely timid and didn't appear to be drinking or eating. He's since proven me wrong by eating like a champ. The seeds shown are some Pidgebee gave me when I adopted him, not sure the mix.

http://i.imgur.com/0E5PcsE.jpg This is Clarence
http://i.imgur.com/vebpVyu.jpg This is Bleu as of like a month ago before my good camera broke, will take a more recent picture of her if I can. She's exceptionally hard to photograph 'cause as soon as she sees the camera she holds as un-still as possible.. She's about 300 grams, holding steady.

Don't worry, by excersize him I don't mean chase him around the room and make him fly. He flies when he wants to, and every day he's flying a bit more. I know for sure he was out of excersize at the very least because he used to fly very heavily, if that makes any sense, and land a little hard, but he's since tuned his style and has a better time of it as he goes. Every time he lands he looks a tiny bit out of breath but his lungs and such are totally fine, so even if he isn't obese he at least is a little chub. As for the 330 grams being obese:: He's very small. Bleu is a rescued feral and he's a good bit smaller than her. I'll see if I can take pictures of the two together sometime as comparison. His feathers are also a little denser but I'm not sure how much weight that would add, whereas Bleu is a fluffball.

I had no intention of starving the bird, no worries -- I did mix in seeds with his veggie mix as well.

CBL, what is your opinion of Harrison's? Should I mix seeds and it? Bleu's definitely been showing feather improvement since she started eating it so I don't want to remove it entirely.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Will look at the pics in a sec. If by Harrisons, you mean the pelleted organic feed, thats GREAT. Yes mix a bit of it in with the seed. I like that stuff. Just keep an eye on water intake and if they are taking much more than usual, then cut it back a bit, I would still have seeds as main diet and add the chopped greens in separate bowl a few times a week as a treat. The pellets mix in about 10% of the feed. See how they handle that, but be prepared for him to eat around the pellets lol. He may learn by watching the other bird tho.

Let me go see pics. Regarding the respitory and breathing, birds can have a bit of a respitory infection that affects breathing, you would have to compare him to the other and how its flies and breaths afterwards. If there is much gasping or open beaked breathing and not a quick recovery, it would not hurt in my opinion to give course of general respitory medication. I'll check pics now....


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Nice looking birds for sure, love Clarence by color . Ok so just a note, when I feed, I use a smaller dish so they cannot stand and or poop in it, thats just beggin for disease. I use ramekins or cat dishes. Then I either remove them for the night so they dont spill the water or use hanging ones on cage doors. Please dont just used processed food only, I think we established that as a supplement good to go as a primary feed, no way. I say watch fro water intake as sometimes a batch of anything mad made will be too salty. Not sure if they use salt or sodium like product, but I think they must. Anyway, u would know by increase in water intake. This has happened to me with cat and dog feed. Processed is processed. Look forward to more pics when ur camera is working


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## cwebster (Dec 11, 2010)

Lovely birds. They don't look obese. We remove the food at night too and use special crocks for water so they can't soil the water.


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## Raisindust (Apr 8, 2010)

I recently had a rescued bird die of respiratory disease, and as devastating as that was, it at the very least helped me learn signs of respiratory disease. I don't think Clarence has that. He has no tail bobbing, does not stay puffed up except during times when he feels its necessary ( sometimes sleeping, or occassionally he's sat directly in front of the fan, lol ), and ONLY would be breathing a bit heavily after flight, not from just general moving around. Recovers in less than ten seconds every time. Also his poops, though darker in color than Bleu's, tend to be good. they were a bit watery the first day, to be expected from a stressed bird, but they're fine now. Still eats like a champ. Loves pretty much everything I put in his bowl. I swear if I put nails in there he'd still eat them and not think anything of it, lol! It's such a relief, as Bleu is notoriously the pickiest bird ever. She doesn't even eat bread! A pigeon that hates bread! ( It goes well with my labrador dog who hates water I guess.. )

I used to free feed but I've switched to feeding at the morning and at night. I feed as soon as I wake up, and kick them out of their cages a little bit before I head to work, where their food would be locked in their cages, and dumped / replaced at night time feeding, which is when I get home ( around 7PM ). The food gets taken away again about an hour after that. 

At the time of the photo I didn't have a proper bowl for Clarence so I was just using a paper plate but he has a bowl now that gets washed daily. He's a very clean eater, I've never seen him step in or on it, contrary to Bleu who likes to climb in her bowl, kick *everything* out of it, and then eat the food off the floor.. 

I'm relieved that you guys don't think he's obese. I honestly don't know how I'd help him out if he was. I'll definitely feed him mostly seeds / harrisons and I've got the veggies on hand and will offer those every now and again as treats as you guys suggested.  Thank you much.

Charging phone now, will try to get better pictures tomorrow during the daylight. There's nothing my phone camera hates more than artificial lighting.


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## CBL (May 13, 2014)

Pigeons are not like caged birds, they can have respiratory issues have mucous in the mouth or sacs and seem ok until they fly, then get this breathing issue on exertion. Read up a bit from google with pigeons and respiratory, see what u find. There are different 'degrees' of respiratory for them. Could also simply be an out of shape bird who doesn't fly often, keep an eye, read what u can find, then decide.


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## re lee (Jan 4, 2003)

If you feed 1 ounce of feed per bird TWO times a day that should be good. Or weigh the feed put it in for the birds. Let them eat for 10 to 15 min, Then weigh agin That should tell you how much they eat at a feeding. Have the birds hungry. As over fed birds get picky and waste feed..


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## Raisindust (Apr 8, 2010)

Thanks for the hel guys.  Yeah, I've been feeding them too much because they eat hardly any of it and they're done. I guess I got used to Bleu eating until she was stuffed and back as a baby because I feel like I could fill her entire bowl up constantly and she'd eat the thing clean every time.

Took some fresh pictures today, a couple minutes ago, to show how they loo. Bleu of course is still the hardest bird to photograph ever because she wants to strut around or just move her head to look at the camera *constantly* but I still got a good shot. It only took fifteen deleted pictures before I got one that was okay! Whereas Clarence only took 3. 

Bleu first, then Clarence, Clarence is the red and white spotted -- also if someone could help me with what breed he is that'd be cool, just to know it 

http://i.imgur.com/SDu5oYb.png

http://i.imgur.com/EQXDsK0.png


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## Raisindust (Apr 8, 2010)

Off topic for this thread but Clarence has also been doing this weird behavior that I've never seen Bleu do, I just want to make sure this is normal.

Usually before flying, he crouches down like he's going to launch, kind of spreads his wings ( only a little bit; like, the wing itself stays folded but he holds it away from his body ) fluttering them a bit before taking off. He flies fine and lands fine, it's almost like he's scared to fly to begin with. Is this normal?

I took a video of it but my phone won't let me email that to myself. Gonna see if I can find a way to get it off of my phone.


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