When you hear stories of a chunky animals, I’m sure I’m not the only one who immediately thinks of fat cats and podgy pups; but it turns out birds can end up overweight too.
Plump the owl, for example, was discovered in a ditch by Suffolk Owl Sanctuary and, sadly, the feathered friend was dubbed too fat to fly.
While it’s not unheard of for cats and dogs to end up rather ‘chonky’, the owl sanctuary said it was ‘extremely unusual’ that the bird had become so overweight.
The lovely Plump, named by the sanctuary, weighed a hefty 245g when she was found, which is around a third heavier than birds her size and age should be. She was apparently unable to fly because of the ‘fatty deposits’ around her body. I feel you, Plump.
Suffolk Owl Sanctuary then took Plump under their wing (sorry, not sorry) and put the bird on a strict diet to help her shift a few pounds.
In a Facebook post, shared on Wednesday, January 29, the sanctuary said:
This soggy little owl was found in a ditch a few weeks ago. Usually in these instances we assume injury of sorts that is preventing the owl from flying – occasionally becoming wet causes them to become grounded too – so you can imagine our surprise that when we examined her, we found her to simply be extremely obese!
Upon weighing her, she was a rather chunky 245g (which is roughly a third heaver than a large healthy female little owl) and she was unable to fly effectively due to the fatty deposits around her body.
This is extremely unusual for wild birds to get into this condition naturally, so we needed to investigate some obvious scenarios – the first being that she was possibly an escaped aviary bird. Sadly there was no indication of rings or chip identification, and asking around in the local area didn’t give us any leads.
After further investigation, the sanctuary put Plump’s weight down to ‘natural obesity’, as there were no signs the owl was ‘readily taking more wild food types’ than she should have been.
Plump was then put on a strict diet to help her get to a healthy weight, and has since been able to be released back into the wild.
Suffolk Owl Sanctuary shared the video of Plump being released calling her a ‘little star’.
The sanctuary said the bird was released back into the while a much ‘healthier, and happier weight’. Well done, Plump!
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.