Lory and Lorikeet Care?

[zERo]

Hello, I'm still planning for a future bird, I realized I forgot to add lorikeets to my previous thread!
I know they are nectar eaters and have seen the powdered nectar online and stuff, but I'd love to know more about their temperaments and nutrition.
How loud are they? Each bird is individual but as a generalization. How much fruit and is sugar an issue, should sweeter fruits be more limited than those with less? What about vegetables? I know they can have sprouts but not often and are regular seeds out of the question? Can they have things like birdie bread? I prefer to get information here from people who actually own them, because looking up lorikeet care wont always wield accurate info. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

[LaManuka]

Hello, I'm still planning for a future bird, I realized I forgot to add lorikeets to my previous thread!
I know they are nectar eaters and have seen the powdered nectar online and stuff, but I'd love to know more about their temperaments and nutrition.
How loud are they? Each bird is individual but as a generalization. How much fruit and is sugar an issue, should sweeter fruits be more limited than those with less? What about vegetables? I know they can have sprouts but not often and are regular seeds out of the question? Can they have things like birdie bread? I prefer to get information here from people who actually own them, because looking up lorikeet care wont always wield accurate info. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

I have had the immense pleasure of having had two lorikeets in my life (though not at the same time!), both of them tiny purple crowned lorikeets, a rooster called Sludge back in the 1990’s, and more recently my Princess Lilly Pilly whom we tragically lost in January 2022. I think when most people think about lorikeets they may have the larger rainbow, yellow bibbed or chattering varieties in mind. I can really only speak about the Australian species, as I have not experienced the Asiatic species myself so cannot speak to their temperament.

Lorikeets in generally are just that much more challenging to keep. Rainbow lorikeets are not for the faint of heart. They are all cuddly, sweet, goofy birds as babies, but when they grow up and those hormones take hold – BAM – everything changes overnight. Rainbows in the wild live in very large and socially complex flocks with very distinct hierarchies, and they are not above a bit of violence in sorting the social order out. This can translate to you as their flock member in the home, many is the story I’ve read of rainbow owners who claim they cannot go near their previously sweet baby without wearing thick clothing, gloves, hats to protect delicate ears and eye goggles to prevent serious injury. There will of course be exceptions to this, but these are traits that are hard-wired into them over billions of years of evolution and are not easily trained out of them, if they can be ever. Even my tiny purple crowned Princess turned into a murderous banshee for six months of the year in her breeding season, and would continually launch violent attacks at my hands and face from sun-up to sundown for half of the year! This was nothing she or I could do anything about, it was just the way her behaviour and urge to breed was so hormonally and chemically hard-wired and it manifested itself in mad, manic and violent behaviours for half the year, every year!

I don’t know how readily available a smaller species might be to you, such as a musk or a scaly breasted lorikeet. They are not as big and colourful as the Rainbows, but they are just as full of personality and are WAY easier to handle than a big mature aggressive Rainbow. Personally, as much as I love them, I wouldn’t have a Rainbow, I know many do, but for me they're just a bit above my skill set. I knew a lady years ago who had been a sweet baby, but that turned very violent indeed upon sexual maturity, so she thought the solution was to go get him a little friend. BIG mistake, she just ended up having TWO very violent birds who then stuck with their own species and wanted nothing to do with her! They are also not birds who do well stuck in a cage for any length of time while you, for example, go to work all day, and they should not be housed in the same cage as another bird for “company”, as this can lead to fights and injuries, most likely to the other poor hapless bird. Rainbow lorikeet beaks are very strong and can inflict a lot of damage, sometimes requiring lips or eyelids to be stitched back together, and they can make puncture wounds up to 1 centimetre deep!

Diet isn’t that much of a drama really. Lories do not (or should not) eat seeds. Rather should be fed a wet nectar mixture (generally a dry powder mixed with water to make a thin slurry), and this should be left with them for no more than about 3 or 4 hours, depending on how hot the weather is, because it will spoil and need to be replaced after that time. My Lilly would get wet mix for her breakfast, and then I’d replace it with straight dry nectar powder for the rest of the day. Cleanliness is everything, water bowls should be kept on the opposite side of the cage to prevent fouling as they will fling their food into it. Ideally you want to change the water part way through the day anyway because if they can find a way to foul their water, they’ll do it! In a domestic setting, it’s best to feed leafy green vegetables and only feed very minimal fruit. There’s a lot of sugar already in that wet nectar mix, and being in captivity they do not need the extra sugar found in fruit, inevitably their not as active in captivity as they are in the wild and don’t burn that sugar off so it can lead to or exacerbate those already troublesome behavioural problems. Some people will try to convince you to buy nectar pellets for lorikeets but I (and British ornithologist and lory fancier Rosemary Low) do not recommend them. They are too dry and a completely unnatural food made for human convenience to try to curtail that notorious liquid poop, with little thought given to how they affect the bird. It would be like spending your whole life with constipation – lorikeets have evolved their whole gastro-intestinal tract towards a liquid diet and therefore liquid poop is just a fact of life that you need to accept if you want to own a lorikeet.

It's your choice of course, but if you are considering having one, my advice would be try for one of the smaller species if available. Also maybe try to go for a rooster, as they don’t have the reproductive issues that were such a massive problem for my Lilly, and that ultimately claimed her life when she was far too young. But even though she was vicious and violent and as mad as a cut snake (as we say in Australia) I loved my little Princess, so as long as you are aware of the potential issues going in and are not under the illusion that that sweet baby will necessarily remain that way forever, you’ve got a much better chance of being able to make your relationship work, and if you do get one please let me know! I wish you all the very best of luck

 

[zERo]

I have had the immense pleasure of having had two lorikeets in my life (though not at the same time!), both of them tiny purple crowned lorikeets, a rooster called Sludge back in the 1990’s, and more recently my Princess Lilly Pilly whom we tragically lost in January 2022. I think when most people think about lorikeets they may have the larger rainbow, yellow bibbed or chattering varies in mind. I can really only speak about the Australian species, as I have not experienced the Asiatic species myself so cannot speak to their temperament.

Lorikeets in generally are just that much more challenging to keep. Rainbow lorikeets are not for the faint of heart. They are all cuddly, sweet, goofy birds as babies, but when they grow up and those hormones take hold – BAM – everything changes overnight. Rainbows in the wild live in very large and socially complex flocks with very distinct hierarchies, and they are not above a bit of violence in sorting the social order out. This can translate to you as their flock member in the home, many is the story I’ve read of rainbow owners who claim they cannot go near their previously sweet baby without wearing thick clothing, gloves, hats to protect delicate ears and eye goggles to prevent serious injury. There will of course be exceptions to this, but these are traits that are hard-wired into them over billions of years of evolution and are not easily trained out of them, if they can be ever. Even my tiny purple crowned Princess turned into a murderous banshee for six months of the year in her breeding season, and would continually launch violent attacks at my hands and face from sun-up to sundown for half of the year! This was nothing she or I could do anything about, it was just the way her behaviour and urge to breed was so hormonally and chemically hard-wired and it manifested itself in mad, manic and violent behaviours for half the year, every year!

I don’t know how readily available a smaller species might be to you, such as a musk or a scaly breasted lorikeet. They are not as big and colourful as the Rainbows, but they are just as full of personality but are WAY easier to handle than a big mature aggressive Rainbow. Personally, as much as I love them, I wouldn’t have a Rainbow, I know many do, but for me they're just a bit above my skill set. I knew a lady years ago who had been a sweet baby, but that turned very violent indeed upon sexual maturity, so she thought the solution was to go get him a little friend. BIG mistake, she just ended up having TWO very violent birds who then stuck with their own species and wanted nothing to do with her! They are also not birds who do well stuck in a cage for any length of time while you, for example, go to work all day, and they should not be housed in the same cage as another bird for “company”, as this can lead to fights and injuries, most likely to the other poor hapless bird. Rainbow lorikeet beaks are very strong and can inflict a lot of damage, sometimes requiring lips or eyelids to be stitched back together, and they can make puncture wounds up to 1 centimetre deep!

Diet isn’t that much of a drama really. Lories do not (or should not) eat seeds. Rather should be fed a wet nectar mixture (generally a dry powder mixed with water to make a thin slurry), and this should be left with them for no more than about 3 or 4 hours, depending on how hot the weather is, because it will spoil and need to be replaced after that time. My Lilly would get wet mix for her breakfast, and then I’d replace it with straight dry nectar powder for the rest of the day. Cleanliness is everything, water bowls should be kept on the opposite side of the cage to prevent fouling as they will fling their food into it. Ideally you want to change the water part way through the day anyway because if they can find a way to foul their water, they’ll do it! In a domestic setting, it’s best to feed leafy green vegetables and only feed very minimal fruit. There’s a lot of sugar already in that wet nectar mix, and being in captivity they do not need the extra sugar found in fruit, inevitably their not as active in captivity as they are in the wild and don’t burn that sugar off so it can lead to or exacerbate those already troublesome behavioural problems. Some people will try to convince you to buy nectar pellets for lorikeets but I (and British ornithologist and lory fancier Rosemary Low) do not recommend them. They are too dry and a completely unnatural food made for human convenience to try to curtail that notorious liquid poop, with little thought given to how they affect the bird. It would be like spending your whole life with constipation – lorikeets have evolved their whole gastro-intestinal tract towards a liquid diet and therefore liquid poop is just a fact of life that you need to accept if you want to own a lorikeet.

It's your choice of course, but if you are considering having one, my advice would be try for one of the smaller species if available. Also maybe try to go for a rooster, as they don’t have the reproductive issues that were such a massive problem for my Lilly, and that ultimately claimed her life when she was far too young. But even though she was vicious and violent and as mad as a cut snake (as we say in Australia) I loved my little Princess, so as long as you are aware of the potential issues going in and are not under the illusion that that sweet baby will necessarily remain that way forever, you’ve got a much better chance of being able to make your relationship work, and if you do get one please let me know! I wish you all the very best of luck

Thank you so much for all this info!
Also I'm sorry for the loss of your Lilly Pilly, she was such a beautiful girl.

I think if I do decide on a lorikeet or lory it would probably be a musk or a smaller species. I've never been really interested in owning the larger species because I've heard many stories about them and such. I didn't know their hormones were so intense or long lasting! I'll let you know if I ever bring one home!
Thanks again!

 

[LaManuka]

You're most welcome, zERo. I almost got myself a scaly a few years ago, just before I got my little Lilly, but the vibes just weren't right and that's how I ended up with my little Princess.

And thank you for your condolences about Lilly's loss too. Honestly I think one of the biggest "problems" (if I can call it that) with lorikeets is that they have SUCH intense personalities that it is completely devastating when you lose one, they are so all-pervasive in your home and in your heart and mind that the void they leave behind is just massive. I hope to get another little lory someday, and maybe mine and yours can make each others' acquaintances soon

 

[zERo]

You're most welcome, zERo. I almost got myself a scaly a few years ago, just before I got my little Lilly, but the vibes just weren't right and that's how I ended up with my little Princess.

And thank you for your condolences about Lilly's loss too. Honestly I think one of the biggest "problems" (if I can call it that) with lorikeets is that they have SUCH intense personalities that it is completely devastating when you lose one, they are so all-pervasive in your home and in your heart and mind that the void they leave behind is just massive. I hope to get another little lory someday, and maybe mine and yours can make each others' acquaintances soon

Your welcome I hope we can both welcome a lory into our homes, I can't wait to (hopefully) experience one.

 

[jessem101]

i own two different types of Parrots, one being a rescued Double Yellow Headed Amazon, the other is a Black Lory.

i have owned other species of parrots historically, and i have made some mistakes learning. One thing i learned and this has carried to all my birds, is to not let them think you are a mate. do not encourage this behavior try only petting them on their heads and neck. its ok to give and take kisses, have them on your hands arms and chest...but i don't allow them on my shoulders. Its not because i am worried about them biting me, its more so a dominance issue. don't be afraid to train them to be self sufficient as well.

Be sure to go through the daily motions of step up, lay on back, play with the bird, but dont start to pet the bird under its wings, stomach, breast...it at times is a trigger for their hormones, which in hand could cause the parrot to lash out. also do not encourage the behavior by snuggling the parrot.

Lorys are very playful birds, play with them! roll around a ball, let them jump around, have fun wrestling with them. if they get nippy, stop, pull back and stop stimulating....go back and play when it stops. they like to play with their beaks more so than other parrots...so make sure to train them early on to know when enough is enough, or too much is too much. Must train positive reinforcement early on..they pick things up very quickly. My Amazon is extremely intelligent, and they too when hormones kick in...watch out, blood will be drawn!

You can either make the bird an absolute terrible pet, or you can make it a wonderful pet. the sooner you are on point and consistent, the better for you and your family and the bird's long term health.

this is from my personal experience, some may say different, some may not. good luck with your soon new addition.

Jess