FINCHforum

i have 2 red faced parrot finches and i am a bit concerned about one of them. i bought them from a fair about a year ago so i dont know their age but im guessing they are far from young.

lately i have notices one has troubles flying although it can still fly but it appears a lot more clumbsy now. not sure if this is due to age or if something is wrong. it seems puffed up a lot of the time and is always flapping its wings is though pluming itself but i think something is wrong. they are still very active especially at nights. i feed them a very good diet but they do also get a lot of millet spray. to me they look a little on the plump side but i thought this might be due to the winter. i think worms might also be present but i am waiting for a vet to contact me about that.

they are both going through the molt too so not sure if that has anything to do with it. any advice would be much appreciated as i dont want to lose these little beautys. thanks

Could the bird be overwheight? Have you looked at the belly, push the feathers back, look for little fat pads, yellowish pads. It might be the little one is a tad overweight and having trouble getting himself up gracefully.

What are you feeding on a daily basis...if you are offering millet sprays daily and they aren't eating enough of a varied diet, pigging out on millet then they could be overweight. If you do see little fat pads on the bird perhaps cut back on the millet to every other day or twice a week. I do not serve it at all since they get enough of a variety of foods and all mine tend to demolish it and not eat the other stuff.

Are there any other symptoms, like watery stools, worm like segments in it's droppings?

they do look a little over weight as it keeps falling off ther perch, just seems not too clever on its feet. they eat constantly though and it makes me feel guilty removing their food

Don't remove their food but take the spray millet out...are they over eating one food more than the other? Or over eating and always in the food bowl...sometimes over eating constantly can indicate a parasite also.

Let us know what the vet says.

Cindy every morning i place a tea plate (bit larger than a tea saucer) full of all sorts, i give them crushed egg shells, boiled egg slightly mashed, wild rocket, lettuce leaf, broccerli, cauliflour, grated carrots, millet seed, niger seed(nyger seed), finch egg food, large helping of cucumber, sweetcorn and millet spray when it looks like a skeleton.
this is what i feed them everyday and their plate is totally clean by the morning but they do sometimes leave a few millet seed but not much. i thought they ate all the time cos they were borred

Sounds like a feast! Has the vet given you a call back yet?

im still waiting for them to call, its been 3 days now. how long does it take for them to show signs of losing weight usually?

Not to sure on how quickly you with notice it. I imagine within a week. Can I point out that broccoli is something you need to not give everyday. Check the FIC section under Nutrition, Safe and Unsafe Foods. You may want to check on cauliflower also.

ok thanks Cindy i will have to have a look at that in a bit. they seem to eat everything in sight so im not at all supprised if they are over weight. they do look a lot bigger than when i bought them and it may also explain why their last 3 cluches have all been infertile. how do these birds ever survive in the wild i never know, they must all have a body weight like chunk on the goonies lol

Parrot finches (Forbes included) are prone to being overweight.
Althought all that food sounds wonderful it is probably too much. Also they need to fly alot. What is their cage size?
When they are molting I have had mine to have problems flying also and once they complete their molt everything is fine. Good luck!!

I was thinking along the same lines as Donna...do you let these out as you do your shaft tails or are they flighted within a cage....if so cage size is important.

the problem seemed to have started at the same time as their molt but i thought it was a coincidence. they are in a 4ft long by 2ft high by 2ft wide breeding cage but i do let these out everyday for a fly about. they are often left out for a good few hours as they are pretty good and dont get upto trouble like the shaft tails and like all the others they do go back into their own cage without any help from me. i have noticed one struggling to fly up onto a chair the other day and since then ive been watching them closely. i hope they get through it, appart from my over feeding i do looked after them well.
ive been putting a tonic into their water too to help with their molt, the tomic is for small birds going through the molt, poor little birdys lol, all of my birds are going through their molt at the moment so they are all getting the same tonic.

May I make a suggestion...the variety of veggies be spread out through out the week, maybe offer 2 types or 1 type a day. Eggfood is good but I do not offer it daily to all except to those with young. I offer pellets and seed daily.

To much of the same foods back to back is not good...

here is the FIC lonk to Nutrition
http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/index.php

Safe and unsafe foods
http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/safe_toxi ... _foods.php

Rotate your veggies say broccoli and carrot one day, eggfood and and romaine the next, corn and peas the next etc. then back to broccoli and carrot and so on.

Many parrot finch breeders rely on grass seed to keep weight down. I also agree when the molt is finished they will probably fly normally.

thats a good idea, its something i didnt think about, starting tomorrow they will only get millet spray once every 2 weeks as well, i was going to ask about grass seed but after looking at the price of it in the shops i think i will give it a miss lol, i was told they are great as they can eat as much as they like of grass seed and it wont make them gain any weight. problem is there are so many veriets of grass seed
thanks for those links im gonna have a browse on those right now. thanks also for all the help i am really greatfull, i love me birdys to bits and i get worried when something doesnt look right with them