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Lorikeet biting and territorial problem

krzywy

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Hi all,
I have my lorikeet for 1,5 years. First year she was very playfull and kind. Problem began after one year. She started to attack my wife and sometimes me. Now it is even hard to feed her. When lorikeet and my wife are together in one room, she(lorkeet) attacks her instantly. Other day she is very kind and wants to play with her. Nowadays parrot don`t want to play with anyone, she is just standing in the kitchen and protecting it from us...
 
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Anne & Gang

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Watch this thread. @JAM
 
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JAM

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Welcome to the forum!

Have you got some pictures of your lorikeet?
Do you know what sex it is?
Have you had it from young?
Where do you house it, what size cage, what is your routine and feeding wise what do you feed?

Diet and exercise are major indicators of behaviour in lorikeets. Sex is also a biggie and changes which include illness, have you had a vet check?

Hope to hear from you soon. :)
 

waterfaller1

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Welcome to Avian Avenue! :hug8:
 

Stormcloud

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What sort of lorikeet are referring to and where are you located??? Rainbow Lorikeets can become very territorial and aggressive upon reaching maturity. Your lorikeet sees your wife as competition for your affections, which is why she attacks her. In other words your lorikeet views you as her mate. The following article will assist you with understanding this phenomenon Site Name - Articles - Behavioral - Sex And The Psittacine Most parrots settle down again after breeding season, but this is not always the case with single lorikeets. Your lorikeet also sees the kitchen as her territory with a potential nesting site, which is why she is guarding it. @CheekyBeaks or @JAM may be able to assist better with providing solutions as they both keep lorikeets/lories and therefore may have found themselves in a similar situation at some stage. However, both Cheekybeaks and JAM keep their lorikeets in pairs/colony situations which means their birds are able to better direct their sexual intentions more appropriately.

Last, but not least I'll leave you with a couple of links which may assist you with gaining a greater understanding of your lorikeet and her behaviour. This is a useful article "So you've just been bitten by your pet lorikeet!" web.archive.org/web/20091017225526/http://www.mooloolabapets.com.au/html/lorikeets.html The second is a very useful lory/lorikeet site that also gives you an excellent insight into their behaviour www.kcbbs.gen.nz/lori/ar/behaviour.html.
 

krzywy

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I`ll send pictures later. Pepit is a female lorikeet. I got her when she was 4 months old and she was handraised. She is in a different room in her cage, when she is in a cage with us she is screaming very loud all the time. Cage - 60 x 71,5 x 40,5 cm http://www.zoohandel24h.pl/Szablon/Zdjecia/donna2.jpg
I fed her in the morning with CeDe lorikeet mix with sugar or fructose. Additionaly i give her some fruit or vegetable. She likes apple, pear, banana, carrots as a treat i use honey. When i got back from work i give her biscuit (she loves them) and some fruits again. Before we take her out of a cage we have to clean all rooms from forks and other metal, silver things because she is very aggressive when she sees them. We cant go to a kitchen when she is out because she attacks us. It is very annoying, we cant do anything when she is out.
 

Monica

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Make sure she's getting enough sleep.

Start target training her.

Also teach her to station or "stay put".


After she learns target training, teach her some new behaviors such as turn around, play with toys, big wings, climb a ladder, etc.


If you give her something to do (challenge her mind) and keep her busy, she may be less inclined to be aggressive or to bite.
 

krzywy

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When i startede to do target training with her she began to be very very aggressive. I do not know what to do...
 

JAM

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Alright sorry for the delay in answering you. First may I say especially with a hen what you are experiencing is very normal behaviour and she is basically going through adolescence and at exactly the point she should be.
Lorikeets become sexually nature between 12 and 24 months with most hitting the mark at the 18 month with a readiness to breed by 2 years old.

Your little madam is going through a pretty traumatic time in terms of hormones if that can allow you to understand why she is being such a crazy thing. She's a teenager with no one to explain to her why she is feeling the way she does and she can't tell you except through wired instincts.

Is there any way at all to isolate the kitchen to not allow her access? This will only be a temporary diversion as she may then centre her "nest" or territory on something else but it's a start.

Where are you in the world as I want to see what access to types of foods you have.

Nestiness and hormonal behaviour can be lessened although not necessarily removed by reducing sugar/carb intake whilst not increasing protein which is required by birds in breeding condition and also by increasing hours of darkness whilst lessening stimulation. My CAV said to help combat M-Star's was to reduce the sugary fruits and increase the veggie intake.

How much sleep do you give her? In hormone crazy time 12 hours would be recommended.

Biting in lorikeets is common, our oldest hen, Blue is Jekyll and Hyde with us. One minute she will be handleable (to a point) the next moment she will nail me or my partner with her beak. It's painful too, she draws blood on every occasion.
She also isn't one to play and she is hard to train. She would definitely be a practical example of why people say males are better than females as pets. She is fiercely territorial and defends her chosen bonded mate.
If I put my hand in her "area" I make myself vulnerable and fair game to receive reprimand from her.

Stick training will be useful but be patient with her, she won't switch out of hormone mode for a while yet and there will be more downs than ups. Do expect to be bitten, don't let it be a deterrent as over time with hard work you CAN reduce this and help her become the lovable lorikeet you want her to be.

For the time being it may be better for you to use a perch to transport her rather than stepping up to your fingers, if your finger isn't there to be bitten it won't be a temptation to her and less of a trauma for you guys.

Treat wise stop using honey unless you are training. Ours go wild for honey so it's not added to anything unless we are doing something positive with them. Honey has no nutrition for them apart from loading with sugar. We learnt that the hard way as well. ;)

What toys and such does she have access to whilst out. Lorikeets need an incredible amount of stimulation and attention to the point where it does get overloading for people. They are high energy birds and expect everything around them to be able to keep up. :)

I will continue with a few more thoughts later but let's take little steps at a time. You also have some great advice given from users who have already posted and the links are very useful. One that may make you smile is the skippy one and I suspect your little one has skippy in full swing right now. Hormonal & Aggressive Lories & Lorikeets

Keep at her. :)
 
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krzywy

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Thanks for advices! Unfortunately our kitchen is connected to a dinning room. Since few days we are letting her out only in our sleeping room but this is problematic.
We`re living in Poland. I tried to fed her with flowers and those worms http://www.placdefilad.com/images/stories/varsisava/8_cototoje_4.jpg
I have no idea how they are called in English. She doesn't eat this.... I am carrefull with honey.
I'm avoiding loud, silver toys and other reflecting things. She likes toys which are simillar to her colours, something like little teddy bears, tennis balls and toys for cats. She is sleeping exacly 12 hours!
When i started to do training with her she stopped to play with me. Began to be very aggressive against me. During a day she attacks only my wife, ocassionaly me. Sometimes she is "hunting" on my wife, waiting for a perfect occasion to bite her and she can be very painfull. Shen bites her even on her face, without any reason. I am affraid that when we will have a kid it will be more dangerous so i am trying to avoid this situation...
 

JAM

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@JLcribber any insight you can offer in terms of the aggression side of things on top of what our thoughts are?

I am just training now so will try and help out some more later.

I had an experience with a very aggressive scaly that I've been asked to help with so I am open to plenty of other ideas to help me with that bird as well as the OP.
 

JAM

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With the Cede lorikeet food could you take a picture of the ingredients and percentages of protein etc as I want to see how it compares.
Do you know of any other lorikeet food available in Poland?

I didn't mention to you to stop mixing sugar/fructose into her food, that's giving her excess energy and will contribute to her hyper behaviour, if you have done already that's great, if not then please cease adding it straight away.

Have you got any form of playstand available in the room at all?

Bamboo shredders are a really good tool to protect fingers and redirect nipping I use it on ours. Our vendors here have them for sale or you can also search for them on ebay.

I know how painful the bite is on these little horrors, Blue reminds me daily of the damage she can inflict on us!

Let me know an update and hopefully we can help you guys on the right track. It is going to be a slow process and you will have days where you feel like you are going nowhere but that's what the journey will be. Hold right, it's a rough ride but we will work with you to get your girl's behaviour in a better direction.
 

JLcribber

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@JLcribber any insight you can offer in terms of the aggression side of things on top of what our thoughts are?

I am just training now so will try and help out some more later.

I had an experience with a very aggressive scaly that I've been asked to help with so I am open to plenty of other ideas to help me with that bird as well as the OP.


I didn't read anything from Krzywy about what kind of boundaries or barriers there are. It's either in the cage or out of the cage. Most problems can be managed without much training by simply setting up and "adapting" the environment. It usually means sacrificing some personal space to provide that. A large secure space that is barriered which provides the boundaries.
 
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JAM

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How are things going?
 
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