Galah Weights

[flossy]

Hi All
I was just wondering if anyone could give me a rough idea what weight a female Galah - aged 4 years - should roughly weigh? I am trying to sort out Jane's diet, have weighed her etc. I believe she is overweight, but would like to see what others are weighing in at.

Thanks everyone, have a great day!

Flossy

[avinet]

Not more than 350 gm is probably OK for a domesticated Eastern subspecies of the Galah, with around 300gm for a wild one. Anything over 400 gms is a problem - Galahs are very prone to fatty tumours and it is important to keep them lean.

There can be a fair bit of variation with the West Australia subspecies being a little smaller - and about 30 to 50 gm lighter and the Northern Territory kuhli subspecies being smaller again - possibly around 250 gm, however I have never weighed a kuhli so can't be sure of their weight.

In the end go by the feel - the keel bone should be obvious raised ridge and not hidden under a layer of fat - if the body on either side of the keel bone bulges out to give a cleavage there is a problem.

I assume you have the Eastern subspecies Flossy? And a reminder I don't think we have seen a photo yet?

cheers,

Mike

[flossy]

Thanks Mike. I will take some pics of her tomorrow. She is over 420 grams! I can't feel her keel bone ridge, she is a real fatty! I can't feel any bulges to the sides thank goodness. I was concerned about her from day 1. She has just been left in a cage and fed oats and not much else. Poor thing, she is precious.
Today I gave her a fruit kebab and she just looked at it! I also gave her some soaked seed and some pellets. She just didn't know what most of it was.

To get her weight down - I am assuming I give her lots of fruit and vegies and limit the sunflower etc? Any idea's?

Thanks very much
Flossy

[avinet]

420 grams is definitely a problem - a strict diet is called for.

My suggestion is feed budgie seed mix - no sunflower! And that is assuming she can't be easily switched over to pellets. Galahs are one species where I think that a low fat pellet is absolutely essential - Roudybush make a low fat pellet which is good or the Vetafarm Maintenance pellet sare only 5% fat. And the more vegies she can be encouraged to eat the less fat in her diet.

Maybe give her a bowl of vegies in the morning with just a pinch or two of seed sprinkled over the top, and leave this in all day, then give her a bowl of seed in the evening. That may encourage some experimentation with the vegies.

Similarly to encourage her to eat pellets sprinkle some pellets as a thin layer over the top of her seed - that way they will usually end up eating some pellets as they dig down for the seed, and realize they are food and don't taste so bad after all.

If she doesn't get down to a reasonable weight - less than 350 grams at least, then she is heading into fatty tumour country I'm afraid. And to see how bad that can get I'm including photos of Penny - a Galah that was more or less dumped into our shop about 3 years ago. We then had her operated on to try to remove the tumour, and 2 operations later she was finally cleared of it. So after paying for the operations, and finally fixing her up we gave her away to a friend with two other Galahs - no wonder we went broke

cheers,

Mike





After the first operation - not all the tumour could be removed during the first and a subsequent one was needed to finish the job.

[sweetcheek]

It absolutely DISGUSTS me that anyone could let any animal get in that sort of condition. That poor bird


Flossy- I just wanted to give you a little bit of hope and light at the end of the tunnel. We have had a pet Galah in our family since I was a baby, she is about 25years old and has basically been passed through the family from my grandmother who let the bird drink beer and "smoke" cigarettes, to my father who, though well intentioned, didn't have her on a very good diet at all and finally through to my brother. She is now with my Mum who looks after her well but it really was my brother who got her diet sorted.

The bird had been on an all seed diet since my grandmother first caught her (she landed on her shoulder). My father occasionally gave her milk thistle but that was it. For 24 years all the bird ate was seed. Anyhow when my brother finally got her he noticed that she had no feathers under her wings and he took her to the vet who advised him that she had some small (barely noticeable) fatty tumours under there that where irritating her so she was plucking out the feathers under there. She was also overweight. We were really lucky that it didn't progress to self mutilation because, I will be the first to acknowledge, she didn't have the best life up until that point. She was loved but her needs where not catered to through ignorance.

Anyhow, she is not the sort of bird that takes changes well so my brother managed to slowly convert her onto pellets and started introducing fruit and vegetables into her diet. Within 2 months you could see the difference in her. She started to become more vibrant in her colour, had more energy and generally seemed healthier. She had a followup with the vet 6 months down the track and she was back to an ideal weight range, the fatty tumours had disappeared altogether and she was starting to grow back her feathers under her wings. It has been 2 years since all that and she is so happy and healthy now. She eats an extensive amount of vegetables and fruit and is like an entirely different bird.

The biggest change in her is her behavior. She was a very aggressive bird, the only 2 people who could touch her were either my father or my brother and even they coped a good nipping every now and again. She used to bash her beak into the wire of her cage if anyone other than them walked past and lord watch out if anyone even looked like they were going to try to touch her cage.

After a couple of months on a correct diet she stopped lunging at my brothers wife, not long after that my Mum started being able to pat her for the first time since the bird first came into the family 20yrs before. She is still somewhat temperamental but she is no longer aggressive with people. It is amazing how changed she is.

So if all this change can happen to an unsocialised, aggressive, 25yr old Galah...imagine how much easier it will be with your young girl.

The main thing the vet said was to convert to pellets, avoid nuts until their weight is under control (and then only as a rare treat) and give as much green leafy vegetables as they will take. Try to keep the fruit to small quantities until the weight sheds and try to encourage exercise. If they are clipped try to make them walk as much as possible. For my brother, his Galah had a strong attachment to her cage so he would put it out the back on the lawn and take her to the farthermost point in the yard where she could still see the cage and put her on the ground to make her walk back to her cage. It was often very tedious BUT it worked and paid off so much to see how happy she is now.

[avinet]

still waiting for those photos

cheers,

Mike

[flossy]

Hi All.....Sorry for being slack with pics. I've just been having one of those weeks......
Ok so Miss Jane has decided she is my hubbies new lady, she attacks me whenever I am near him and she is out of her cage, yet I can scratch her in the cage etc!! She is a nasty lil bugger....biting my hubby as well if she see's him near me!! She draws blood, so it's not a "soft" bite!!

anyway.....she has lost weight! She has gone from the 420 grams to 392 grams. So that is an improvement already. She is enjoying her fruit and vegies etc now - so that's good too. I have attempted to attach a pic - please forgive me if it doesn't work...lol.


imageshack.us/photo/my-images/842/imgp0695p.jpg/

[avinet]

Sounds like she has settled in and decided to be the boss - that behaviour is not uncommon in galahs - some can be sweet and loving while other scan be rather devious, suck you in before giving a good nip

Glad the vegies and fruit are a success, her weight should steadily go down, especially if the seed is limited.

cheers,

Mike

[gypsy]

WOW Flossy - you've got a galah - she looks beautiful so sweet and innocent

Pleased you had her losing weight, how is she going now?

[flossy]

Updating Miss Jane's story. Well after a few months, Miss Jane's weight went down to 337grams. She is such a gorgeous girl........but I have further news. I was on Facebook just looking through some sites and I saw a Wanted ad written by a young lady that I have known for years but haven't seen around recently. She was looking for a galah...a baby galah. I thought about Jane and how she had progressed and what her future was, so I contacted this person. She was so excited but wanted to come around and meet with Jane and see how she got along with them etc, which I had NO issues with at all of course. Jane was besotted! It was incredible - Naree and her partner just fell in love with Jane and visa versa! It was meant to be. Jane, or Janie as she is known...lol....has gone to her forever home - on the proviso that if anything changed I would take her back - they have bought her a lovely big cage, lots of toys and treats....(all healthy selections!) and they adore her. I'm going to visit next week to see how she is, but they love her already. What a great way to rehome a bird that wasn't necessarily going to be rehomed! IF that makes sense at all......She will be loved, adored and cared for and that's all I ask for for her...she is such a precious galah and I love her to bits....but I just had a feeling this might be a better place for her.....I'm so happy I just had to share.

[carlsandclan]

What an awesome story!