So I know this is silly, but my boyfriend joked that charlie looked fatter and now I'm paranoid! I'll try to post a picture, she is quite a large bird...

Perhaps its cause I'm training her with millet? But she definitely doesn't get more than half a millet stick in a week.

I don't really know much about budgies, whether they can actually get noticeably fatter. I don't know how I'd put her on a diet, she refuses to touch pellets.

how much does your fid weigh?

I don't know, I don't have kitchen scale (not like she'd get on it anyway). I'll by a kitchen scale this week and try to put a perch on it...

How much should budgies weigh? How do you attach pics to the forum?

alba - since it is winter - make sure you are not mistaken being fluffed up to stay warm for getting fat. If Charlie is fluffed up you may want to put him in a warmer place.

You would have to get a scale that shows grams. A lot of people put their keets in a bowl then put the bowl on the scales. You have to subtract the weight of the bowl to get the keets weight.

I agree with BLR's ideas.

If you can get him to cooperate, try to gently feel the center of his chest & tummy with your fingertip; you should be able to feel the keel bone under his feathers, somewhere just below his chest but before his legs. (The bone runs up and down, from about under his beak to about his pelvic area.)

I've only seen one photo of a totally obese budgie (in a book) and it looked like it had rolls of fat under its chin, so to speak, and a very pudgy torso. The best way to be sure is to use a gram scale; lure him on with millet, if needed, and record his weight several times a week.

Keets can get fat, especially if they eat an all-seed diet and/or don't get enough exercise.

As for the ideal weight, people will tell you a variety of different ranges. But you always have to keep in mind that keets vary in height, and to some extent in the size of their body frame, just like other animals, so that a healthy weight for one keet might be a problem for another.

Discovering that your keet weighs (for example) 34 grams today won't tell you much. But if you weigh weekly, and a month from now your keet has gained a few grams, then you would want to consult a vet.

As BLR and Pudgie's mom suggested, first make sure you aren't mistaking fluffing for chubbiness, and if you can, gently check to make sure you can feel the breastbone.

Nope, not fluffy. Its also about 85 degrees in my apartment because my sick bird (skylar) cools easily.

She just seems to have this extended belly, I'll see if I can post photos. She is also a larger Keet, the shelter I adopted her from seemed to think was was part English budgie.

I feed them 1/2 seeds and pellets, but I'm pretty sure they don't touch the pellets . When I tried to do all pellets, it seemed like they didn't eat at all. They do eat some nibbles of fresh veggies every day, mainly Kale, carrots, and broccoli.

My Charlie is, well kind of a bully. Sometimes I think she just eats because Skylar is eating and she likes to chase Skylar away from the food.

Have you met Edgar?! lol
I do have a fat budgie. I can barely feel his breast bone. He is up to 38 grams. He is very broad and squishy. I have tried switching his food but he over eats that too. I have to exercise him daily so he doesnt get too big. Everyone's above tips are great. She may be bigger due to being part english.

i had an english budgie with a weight of 45 grams before he got sick and lost weight. actually for him, he was on the thin side i was told by the vet, at the 45 grams.

i had a parakeet who was much smaller in height/size than the english budgie, i guess we could say, you know, but she was fat, at one point she weighed in at 60 grams, i was told she was the fattest bird this vet had ever seen. i put her on a diet and weighed her on a mail scale regularly and she lost alot of the weight, i would put her in a little cloth and plop her down on the mail scale, holding the top of the bandana (but not the weight ), she was never a good flyer so it was easy to have her sit on a bandana,

if your bird flies the exercise can help them if they do have a weight problem