What do Lorikeets eat?

[Kinny]

What does a pet Rainbow Lorikeets diet consist of?

All I know is they require special nectar. Thanks a bunch

 

[MarciaLove]

I feed mine Roudybush Lory/Lorikeet nectar 15 mixed with water along with fresh fruits and veggies and real bird safe flowers from my yard that he eats the pollen off of throughought the day. They sell pellets for them but they are EXTREMELY unhealthy and lorikeets arent made to eat such solid food it can and most likely will kill them.

 

[Mike17]

We don't have the luxury of a pet supply store in town, our guy gets a weak honey solution plus an Oz brand of dry food. I found the commercial wet mix was unpopular with the lories (we had two at that time) and "goes off" rapidly. Coco also eats greens (choy sum etc) as well as seed, he learned ages ago to crack sunflower. He also gets occasional flowers, like bottlebrush although the flowering season was incredibly short this year. He also likes brassica flowers, so when the plants bolt I pick the whole plant and Coco gets to enjoy the flowers. He also gets fruit like grapes, sultanas and apple on a fruit stick as well as mango when they're in season (soon). We've tried many fruits, he'll have a go at most but wastes a lot too- picking up a blueberry, squashing it in his beak then he drops it.

 

[MikeyTN]

I feed mine fresh fruits and veggies with nectar sprinkle over it as that's the way he likes it. I also give him lory nuggets but that's not his main diet as they're not made to eat that exclusively. But he will eat some so I give it to him. Then he gets roudybush nectar like Marcia feeds hers. I will not pick flowers out here as its more polluted within the city. I tried planting bottlebrush but they died....

 

[LoryLover]

I have kept lories for 20 years and have always fed them "Nekton-Lori Complete Lory Diet" nectar. Obtaining this nectar is easy and convenient - I order 3000g - enough for 4-6 months, by faxing my order to them.

It arrives on my doorstep in a vacuum sealed bag, packed in a box. You can also order online. Here's the link to where I order from:
Bird Food Nekton

Once I ran out and bought another brand of nectar from a local pet shop - it didn't smell as nice nor did my lory like it much. So I've stuck with Nekton-Lori all these years. It's a complete diet, nutritionally. But I also offer pollen from fresh flowers in my yard and occasional pure juices, such as apple juice... and fruits and veggies as I have them in the house.

 

[MikeyTN]

Nekton actually have really good nectar but the cost is pretty high. But good product!!!

 

[LoryLover]

Nekton actually have really good nectar but the cost is pretty high. But good product!!!

When we got our first lory, the breeder was feeding Nekton-Lori. She owned a pet shop and sold it in her shop. But she marked it up quite a bit, so I began right away to order it from Guenter Enderle, the distributor in Florida, for half the cost of what pet shops sell it for.

A couple weeks ago I received an order and saw that a different company billed it on my visa - Arcata Pet Supply. I called them, and they said that they are now the distributor of Nekton-Lori and they are located in Northern Calif. I'll have to watch/compare their charges vs what Guenter Enderle in Florida charged me.

 

[MikeyTN]

When I got Malachai, he was eating the Roudybush so I've been sticking to it. At the beginning when I was out and had nothing a breeder friend had a different brand, Zupreem, it was better then nothing as most pet shops here stop selling them. He didn't like it at all but I had to wait until we get our shipments in as the first shipment was damaged and had to be returned. We might be wasting quite a bit of nectar as we give him excess and dump them out when he's done. But for 15 lbs @ $65 isn't bad as most sites are a lot higher.

 

[Mike17]

When I got Malachai, he was eating the Roudybush so I've been sticking to it. At the beginning when I was out and had nothing a breeder friend had a different brand, Zupreem, it was better then nothing as most pet shops here stop selling them. He didn't like it at all but I had to wait until we get our shipments in as the first shipment was damaged and had to be returned. We might be wasting quite a bit of nectar as we give him excess and dump them out when he's done. But for 15 lbs @ $65 isn't bad as most sites are a lot higher.

Even the locally made (Oz) stuff is way more expensive than that! The main brand we use (because it's sold in supermarkets) is $7 to $8 for around 700g or thereabouts (we put it straight into sealed container so can't look at the package). One brand of pollen/nectar is around $15-18 for less than a kilo. That's outrageous petshop pricing, of course. I tried to buy some stuff from US but they'd only ship the lighter stuff- 3 or 5lb bags weren't allowed. Well, they were, but the shipping jumped USD65 with the addition of a 3lb bag of eccy pellets!

 

[LoryLover]

When I got Malachai, he was eating the Roudybush so I've been sticking to it. At the beginning when I was out and had nothing a breeder friend had a different brand, Zupreem, it was better then nothing as most pet shops here stop selling them. He didn't like it at all but I had to wait until we get our shipments in as the first shipment was damaged and had to be returned. We might be wasting quite a bit of nectar as we give him excess and dump them out when he's done. But for 15 lbs @ $65 isn't bad as most sites are a lot higher.

Yeah, $65 for 15lbs is super cheap! I pay 3x that much. It's worth it to me though, to see Sweet Pea slurping up the nectar with a gusto, while chanting "yum, yum, isn't it good" and making lip smacking noises too! And while she's watching me make her nectar, she's saying "want some food, give me some food." She's a character.

 

[LoryLover]

Even the locally made (Oz) stuff is way more expensive than that! The main brand we use (because it's sold in supermarkets) is $7 to $8 for around 700g or thereabouts (we put it straight into sealed container so can't look at the package). One brand of pollen/nectar is around $15-18 for less than a kilo. That's outrageous petshop pricing, of course. I tried to buy some stuff from US but they'd only ship the lighter stuff- 3 or 5lb bags weren't allowed. Well, they were, but the shipping jumped USD65 with the addition of a 3lb bag of eccy pellets!

That's amazing to have nectar for lories available to buy in a supermarket! Pretty convenient and no shipping costs!

 

[SharlenaSharlena]

I feed my flying piglets 'Linda's Blessing" with fresh fruits. They get little treats of fruit with honey and pollen as well.

 

[Jaz27b]

When i had my lorikeet he started on a wet mix of the lorikeet wet mix powder, mixed with water, so its sorta like a porridge. You should eventually get them off the wet mix and get them onto the Dry lori mix so that way they have to mix the water and the food together themselves with their tongue. It helps heaps to keep bacteria infections away as if the wet mix sits out to long, it goes off very easily makes your little one sick. It may take some time to wean them off the wet to the dry but stick in there as from personal experience i find it well worth it in the end! They should always have clean water, i changed my ones food twice a day.... in the morning i would give him fresh, and at night i would re do it again and let the dry mix stay in his cage till the morning (he would wake me up way to early if i took his food out during the night for breaky Lol). Along with the mix, fresh fruit and vege is a MUST. Apples, carrots, green leafy vege, grapes, pears, etc etc etc.... this is a major part of their diet. Then some fresh flowers that they eat in the wild (im in australia so not sure what everyone else has), but here things like bottlebrush and Gravelia are very common and easy to find to pick of a tree. Certain fruits dont let them sit in their cage all day either as they will get yucky eg mango.