cockatiel weight

Question
maggie, my bird is 3 years old. he has been to the avian vet for check ups three times. his wieght was 90grams the first time then later it was 93 grams. i bought a gram scale with a perch. it shows him about 87 grams now. when i weigh him in the mornings it is sometimes down to 85grams. the scale is not a cheap one so i believe it is weighing right. it will be time for his check up in three months. should i go before then or am i just worried for nothing. he is a very active bird so i dont know if that weight loss is normal or what. i do know to check his vent for cleanliness and its clean. any suggjestions?  

Answer
Hi Jesse,

Sometimes scales can read slightly differently. It is not uncommon for two different scales to read differently by a few grams (especially because grams are such a small measurement of weight).

Birds also gain a couple of grams usually as the day goes on. Since they go all night without eating, it is easy for them to loose 2 or 3 grams (if you are referring to a cockatiel... the larger birds can loose even more). The time to be concern is when your bird looses 10% or more of his/her body weight (in your birds case- that would be 7 to 9 grams).

Just make sure to weigh your bird at roughly the same time each day so that you can get consistant readings.

I hope this all makes sense. :)

-Maggie