I weigh my lorikeet every month to keep track of his health and this month the scales said he had gained 20g, from 133g to 154g. I just weighed him again and he went down 4g. Is it possible that a bird could gain so much on a short period of time? We haven't changed his diet, he isn't sick and he is as active as ever. I've put it down to old scales being faulty, but I wanted your input. I'm going to weigh him again in a couple days.
thatâs 15% of his body weight, a 5% change is generally considered pretty drastic, a 5% loss generally indicating illness or not feeding enough. Â While a healthy birdâs weight should change somewhat to sustain themselves over the winter (even people do this, note how most people will say they ate too much over christmas and gained some weight, itâs not just christmas dinner, itâs been happening for a few months). Â Gaining 15% is really substantial for such a high metabolic species, most veterinarians consider a bird to be overweight when their ideal weight is exceeded by 15%, that much gain happening in one month is really dramatic, then dropping 3% is really bizarre (as I said earlier, 5% can be considered cause for worry). Â
It may be that your scale is faulty, grab some containers that say their weight on the label and check itâs consistency, some scales just get old, break, or glitch sometimes so it may be time for a new one. Â If itâs not the scale I would get a vet to check them out just in case. Â Just to add, this information is what I know to be true of most seed-eating parrots, itâs entirely possible that nectarivores have different percentages to abide by that Iâm just not aware of.
