[Fen]

Hello,
I switched my budgues food a few weeks ago. At first only Pan ate it and Jim kept throwing it out. Now they both eat it well... To well.
I first thought it's my imagination that Jim looked a bit pudgier. But I also have noticed that jim eats a lot more than pan and it's empty a lot faster than before.
Now my question is, how should I solve this? I thought about daily rations but I don't want to starve Pan, because she didn't gain weight. And if they eat everything at once they both starve the rest of the day.

 

[Cody]

What are you feeding and is it in the bowl all day for them to eat?

 

[Fen]

I have pellets my vet told me to try and veggies they don't really eat. The fresh food is there as long as it's fresh. And the regular food is in all day, which wasn't an issue before. And until this week the new pellets where mixed with the old food for transfer.

 

[Cody]

If they are eating all the food in one sitting then you could change the way you are giving the food. You can try having one food dish for each bird and giving several meals a day. Did your birds need to gain weight, it is not an issue if Pan has not gained weight unless she was underweight and needed to gain. It would be helpful if you had a gram scale so you could monitor the exact weight of each bird.

 

[Fen]

They were both weight wise in a healthy state, last check up. I switched for nutrition. I am still trying to get them to eat the right amount of fresh food with every trick I could read up on. I am just concerned that pan wouldn't get enough food because of Jim's overeating when I limit the food. They do have 3 bowls. 2 for regular food on each end of the cage, where they switch places mid eating. And one big bowl for treats and veggies. (The treats for making the bowl interesting, which semi-works)
But do you have suggestions how I could get them on the scale? I do have one, but getting them on it is an issue.

 

[Cody]

When I weigh my birds I put them in their carrier like this one Amazon.com and put the whole thing on the scale, some scales will allow you to put an object on it and zero out the weight, then when you add another object you just get the weigh of the object added but if you do not have that feature you will need to weigh the carrier first, put the bird in and weigh again and compute the difference.

 

[ChickWas]

Just so I'm not confused, Pan and Jim are now on a pellet diet, with fresh food (vegetables, etc.)? And you recently swapped them over from a seed diet? For what it's worth, when I swapped my two from an all seed diet to a pelleted diet, I also noticed the same behaviour (they were constantly at the food bowl, eating eating eating). I chalked it up to the fact that seeds are high energy, fatty food (like McDonalds) whereas pellets are healthier and not as fatty, so when the birds swap over, it can be something they're not used to energy-wise. Think about it, if you were eating fast food your entire life, but then suddenly, you were swapped over to healthier foods, you would probably feel the same. You're used to eating something and feeling that jolt of energy, but now, you eat food and don't get that jolt of energy. So you eat more food to try and get that same energy jolt.

After a few weeks, my birds have leveled out and no longer gorge themselves on pellets. I imagine their bodies adapted to the diet change. I still give them a teaspoon each of seed at night, it's part of their bedtime routine and budgies still need a small amount of seed in their diet.

 

[Fen]

That sounds plausible. They did have a seed diet, not for the lack of trying to get healthy food in them. Now I mix some seeds with the fresh food. It's just hard to get them to eat anything that's not seeds. The pellets are at least seed shaped.

Thanks a lot. I will still monitor their weight for the next time. But I will be a lot less stressed. My vet is on vacation, so I couldn't ask about it and wanted to get on top of it before, Jim's weight gets out of hand.