# Helping my bird lose weight



## nixmerlin (Sep 21, 2014)

As you may have heard I got the shock of my life when I weighed merlin and she was 60kg (she is NOT an English budgie). I want to help her lose weight and have cut out all her treat foods (seed bells and millet) and she is not allowed anything off our plates anymore.
Is there any way to encourage her to get more exercise beyond being cruel and just making her fly around more? She has never been a big flier and prefers to climb of jump if she can but she does manage to fly upstairs etc so it's not an issue that she CANT fly.
Any ideas would be much appreciated. I'm a bit worried about her fitness now. She is like an obese old lady!


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## justmoira (Aug 29, 2014)

She probably hates flying because it's just exhausting for her. Poor Merlin  
My two are also tubby, and what I'm now doing is restricting seed feeding to when they wake up and before they go to bed, 1 tsp each for each feeding, spread about so they have to forage for it. I give them access to fresh veggies all day that are not carb heavy (today it's carrots and spinach) so that they aren't hungry. 
I play games with them that require they move about a lot; we play 'finger chase'(they chase my fingers), 'the circuit' (they run around and around me on my arms, where they like to stop behind my neck so I go "Where are those budgies?!" and then they peep a bunch and run to the front, and I have to say "There they are!!!"), and 'step ladder' (I make them step up, then immediately step up on my other finger, then again, like a stepping machine at the gym). Sometimes I do just plain make them fly around, but I also think because I have the two of them they think it's funny and not just me agitating them, you know? Now that Sweetie doesn't hate other bird noises, I also play budgies singing for them as it gets them excited and they are more likely to run around in a crazy budgie fashion. Hopefully that helps.


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## nixmerlin (Sep 21, 2014)

Thanks for all those ideas! I had a go at a few last night. Perhaps we will have to do a weekly weigh in.
I felt awful getting rid of most of her seed. However I night do the seed restriction on alternating days at first so it isn't such a shock for her.
I'm hoping once her and Arthur are allowed to play together she will spend a lot of time chasing him around and telling him off which will keep her a bit ****er!


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## Budget baby (Jan 1, 2013)

The restricted feeding is definitely the way to go, I had to do this as well for Blue. He would not move around much or fly unless he had to, when he did fly he could only fly short distances and stay low. but now he loves flying around, he has got much more refined and can zoom around with Fifo and Budget.
I also took out the food dishes after the morning feed, I left greens available for them, encouraged foraging and walking around .Toys provided more interest and involvement to. weighing and recording is a great tool for many reasons. :Love birds:


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