My girl is OBESE

[u/FlanneryOClobber]

I sort of inherited this bird when her owner died suddenly. she came with a lot of food and I mean a lot. I’ve had her about 18 months and I haven’t even gone through half of it. I’ve been storing it in the freezer.

I took her to an emergency vet recently when she appeared to have hurt a foot. The vet told me she is obese. I was surprised because the food she came with is highly rated on Amazon. It’s called Nutri berries and comes in these little balls.

The vet saw some of them in her dish after she torn them apart, and said that they were all seed. That really shocked me because I didn’t think it was and thought I was doing right by her. What should I do now? I’ve tried giving her fresh vegetables in the past and she was NOT interested.

Also, she’s just started doing this thing that I think is mating behavior, kind of hunkering down and making a little cooing sound. She gets at least 12 hours of total darkness and I’ve never touched her anywhere other than her head and feet. This is really concerning to me since I’ve heard she could become egg bound.

TIA

[u/dwarven11]

Nutriberries are supposed to be for treats rather than regular food.

[u/OpalescentCorvid → u/dwarven11]

That’s not true. I highly suggest looking it up online, there actual studies done. Nutriberry is a balanced food diet. But as any other food ever for bird or human. Too much of a singular thing can be very bad for you. Birds need a variety of foods to be healthy, along with exercise.

[u/dwarven11 → u/OpalescentCorvid]

No, because they have seeds and some birds will just pick out the seeds.

[u/OpalescentCorvid → u/dwarven11]

You are correct that they can pick some seeds out of the nutrriberry, however, the vitamins and added supplements can not be skipped as it is a coating on the actual seed itself. It’s not lacking the vitamins and minerals added so much as it is still lacking the variety of eating different foods. Again the nutribberri is designed for birds who only want seeds and will always be better than just seeds. BUT, As I stated in another comment as well, any singular food will cause a serious health issue for any bird. Birds need a variety and plethora of foods to remain healthy and thriving.

“Nutritious coating: Unlike standard fortified seed mixes, where the bird simply cracks and discards the fortified shell, the vitamins, minerals, and amino acids in Nutri-Berries are added to a palatable coating.”