weight and average heart beat

[ChristineY]

Hi, does anyone here know what a normal weight is for peach-faced lovebirds? Also, what the average heart beat per minute is as well...

Thank You!!!!
Christine

[CompassionAk]

I'm not sure,hopefully someone will see this soon and be able to answer your question.Is your lovie sick?You can post under the I Need Help NOW! part of the forum if you are having an emergency and you should get a faster responce there if it's urgent. http://www.lovebirdsplus.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=28

[linda040899]

Normal weight for a Peachfaced Lovebird can be anywhere from 45 - 55 grams, depending on breeding stock used. When I breed, I try to select large, unrelated birds to form pairs but if the parents are smaller, the offspring will also be smaller.

As for heartbeat, that's a question for my avian vet. I have an appointment with her in a couple of weeks so I will make a note to ask her. She listens to the heartbeat of every bird that she sees, so I'm sure she will have an answer. At this point, I honestly do not have an answer. :(

[NickyBeth]

I don't know if this helps, but I know that the heartrate in animals/people thing always is true to the fact that the smaller the animal, the faster the heartbeat.

http://www.earthlife.net/birds/blood.html

[michael]

Over 1200 BPM for certain hummingbird species!..... Small birds who weigh in at 25 grams are said to have a resting HR of around 275 beats per minute. .. Birds who weigh a hefty 100 grams somewhere's around 200. ... Could it be that a lovebirds heart rate rests somewhere's between 240-260?.....:confused:.....:)

[FuzzyAga]

Yes, I think it's about 240 beats per minute. When I put my ear to the chest of a lovie, all I hear is drumming, but my husband, who plays several musical instruments, told me that he hears a certain metronomic beat to it--at about four beats per second. So an avian vet will be trained to pick up the beat as he/she listens and can discern the normal from the abnormal. Of course, it's impossible to count the single beats, as in a human. :)

For some reason, it frightens me when I hear heartbeat going that fast so I try not to listen. I'm afraid the lovie is going to die, while forgetting that it's normal for him. Quirky, I know. But I can see that one would not want to stress a bird because its heart is already going so fast.

[Chickobee]

One of our birds is 60 grams and one is 61 grams. Are they overweight? They are very healthy and active.

And, if you choose larger breeding stock, wouldn't the average weights go up over time?

Maybe these two are little fatties, but they also seem a bit bigger/taller.

Quigley used to be 60 grams but has lost weight down to 56 since he has a girlfriend. Too much happy dancing I think!

[linda040899]

And, if you choose larger breeding stock, wouldn't the average weights go up over time?

Most definitely! Many mutations are small because of the breeding done to obtain the color. Albinos tend to be very small because they are quite literally the end of the mutation line ---white, which is the absence of all color.

60+ grams is not fat if the entire body structure is large! I had one Abyssinian hen that tipped the gram scale at 70!! She was so big that she filled the entrance hole to her box when she went in and out.

[Chickobee]

Good News! Our birds are definitely not couch potatoes--just BIG! :-)

[ChristineY]

Thank you all for your responses!! I'm just asking because i recently took my lovie to the vet and when they weighed her they said she was about 46 grams and said that she was underweight. I've heard that normal lovebirds are anywhere from 40-60 grams, so I thought maybe I was mistaken. The vet said my bird either has a respiratory infection, or a heart problem. He prescribed her a medication called Baytril, until she gets strong enough to do some more tests.

[linda040899]

Overweight or underweight with birds is usually determined by how much flesh is present in the chest area of the bird. With lovebirds, you can normally feel the keel bone (center bone) but it should not feel sharp. There should be flesh/muscle on either side and the chest area should not feel sunken in, for lack of a better word. If your lovebird has a larger bone structure, 46 grams can be underweight based on the description I just offered. Sierra, my special needs male Abby, weighs 49 grams and he maintains that weight. However, he has a large bone structure and is considered roughly 5-8 grams under what he should be. Because of his locked beak, maintaining the weight he's at is remarkable. A weight gain is not something that I or my avian vet would ever expect.

Baytril is a good broad spectrum antibiotic but I'm not sure I've ever used it to treat respiratory infections. You don't want to assume that your lovebird has a heart problem if the correct medication was not used.