Stewie is NOT chubby. Yay!

[jenseits]

Took my little adoptee to the vet and it turns out Stewie is not a little chunky monkey. At 103 grams, he's just inside the range for a sun conure. Which makes me feel much better. But I think that little trip to the vet undermined a lot of the trust we'd built over the last two weeks.

And I figured out today that he will eat veggies if I grind them up in a blender and sprinkle some treats into the mix. Yay.

[luvmy3kids]

Yay! It always seems strange to me that birds can get fat. I know they can, but it seems so weird!! :)
He'll trust you again. Good job!

[Valo's Moirana]

what a pretty guy.... 103g is actually on the low end for sun conures.... so you can add some treats

glad to hear he's healthy though

[jenseits]

Originally Posted by Valo's Moirana

103g is actually on the low end for sun conures.... so you can add some treats

Moirana, really 103g is low? The vet said the range was something like 90g to 105g.

[gbird]

Pita wieghs around 114/115gr....my vet said between 110 and 120 is normal.....beef up the little guy...lol Pizza crust works well.

He's a cutie.

[ROYJOY]

i dont know about g's, but 4 oz.'s is good. i think 1o3 g's is about 3.5 oz.'s. feed him some raw peanuts.

[Valo's Moirana]

from what i know it's more like 100-120g.... see attached file for birdie weights. bella is about 116g, pita is around 113g... guess it depends on the bird as well, if he's a little smaller than the regular sunnie, it's fine.... all the weights you can find, are generally averages

[jenseits]

Should I be worried that my vet doesn't know what she's doing? (For the record, the practice specializes in "exotics" and there were a ton of other parrots there).

My instincts tell me that Stewie should not be putting on another 15g-20g (15%) though. He's not that a skinny boy (or possibly girl).

[Valo's Moirana]

as i said, all the above stated values are AVERAGES... it does depend on the overall size of the sunnie, and if stewie is smaller overall, the weight could be just fine.

feel the keel bone on his chest - it should be detectable, but not pertruding (if you can't find it, there's too much flesh covering the keel bone - aka birdie needs to loose weight, if the keel bone is sticking out the bird needs to pack on weight).

from the photo above - it looks to me that stewie is just fine weightwise...

when it comes to the vet - if you feel comfortable with the vet, there's no need to change him/her....

[jenseits]

Thanks for the helpful responses. It's good to have some reassurance since I'm still new to sun conures.

Since the vet said he looks good, and Stewie and I aren't at a point where he'll let me touch him, I'll spare us both the trauma of trying to feel him up ... and just relax a little.