Red Belly Parrot

Question
Are Red Belly Parrots known to Over-eat?  Mine has lost tremendous
weight, so that's not the problem here.  He--Anthony, lost weight after
being in someone elses care for awhile--I was in hospital.  Was he just
over-weight before--because I have a before n after pics.  ?  And if he
was overweight before, then has losing this weight suddenly caused him
any damage?  Now...just asking for opinion here....in general as we..?
Thank you very much!
Samantha Amber Moore


Answer
All birds have the potential to over eat.  :-)  You didn't indicate the amount of time this happened over.  But rapid weight loss is usually a red flag.  I would be more worried about the cause of it, rather than if it did any damage.  

There is a bone that runs down the front of their bellies... the keel bone.  Is Anthony's keel bone prominent?  Is there any "meat" on either side?

Do you know if the person who cared for your bird fed him the same exact thing (and amount) that you do?  Did anything traumatic happen while he was in their care?  Is this person a parrot owner themselves?  How long were you gone?

It could be one of four things.  
1.  Your time away from him stressed him out tremendously.
2.  The people who cared for him in your absence did not feed him properly.
3.  He was overweight previously and the people who cared for him put him on a diet.  Depending on how long you were gone, losing weight so quickly would have been incredibly irresponsible for them to do this to your bird.
4.  He has an underlying illness that perhaps the stress of your absence worsened.  

If you can visually see a significant weight loss in your bird, and it wasn't over a very long period of time I would be highly concerned.  Do you know his weight in grams before and after?  

I strongly recommend getting him to an avian vet as soon as you can.  Try to recollect or watch for any other signs or symptoms of him not being his normal self and be sure to tell the vet ANYTHING unusual or out of the ordinary.

Birds hide illness for as long as they can, this is an instinctual trait that never goes away.  In the wild, sick birds are preyed upon or picked on by other flock members.  Even our companion parrots hide illness instinctually.

I hope this information helps, please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.  Good luck!