Please help a newbie just trying to do her best

[LynnClaire]

Hi my name is Evelyn and I just took in a 4-6 month old rainbow lori. I think i am naming him or her sprite like a fairy not the soda... It is very hard to find good info out there.
Can I ask you a few questions.

If you have good quality dry nectar and fruit n veggies do you need wet mix?

Do males or females seem to make better pets?

If socialized evenly can they be family pets or will they choose someone exclusively?

When do they start to exhibit possibly nippy or negative hormonal behavior and what do you do about it?

Do they all get this way?

How do males and female differ during the grumpy mating season behavior wise.

Can they have rope toys?

My guy was hand fed but then ignored he is not a biter but is hand shy. He lets my daughter rub his head and neck with her nose but not her hands lol. Will heh come around? He is shy and quiet and reserved. Is this just cuz he is new and scared?

Does anyone have a fabulous cage idea for catching poop. Yes I know it is part of owning them but we can land on the moon and make and operate iPhones. I refuse to believe no one has invented a good plan of action for liquid bird poop! LOL


Thanks very much.

 

[Stormcloud]

Liquid bird poop being shot around the room is part of normal life with a lory. It's a good idea for all family members to actively interact with them, as lories/lorikeets will choose a favourite person often to the exclusion of all others as they mature. Hygiene is super important with Lories if you are to keep them healthy and since they are pretty messy this generally means a full cage clean every day. @JAM and @CheekyBeaks both keep lories so they'll be of far more assistance to you than me. Good luck with him/her.

 

[LynnClaire]

Thank You for responding

 

[Clare]

Oh the joys of the liquid bird poop! If I ever come across something to contain it, I'll let you know! Good thing Lorikeets are cute!

I give mine fruit and veggies. Zoe loves apple! She would eat just that if I let her. Then also a Lorrikeet mix and I pop in some of those dried fruit stick thingos as a treat every so often.

Zoe is a completely hands off bird, but will happily lick my nose and face - but no one elses. I do know of someone whose Lorikeet adores all of her family members (husband and kids). But I think most birds usually have their favourite.

She gets very lovey with me during breeding season, I haven't had any aggression from her but I think this is because she isn't exactly given the chance.

I think that your new one will come around, it's 100% normal for birds to be a bit withdrawn while they settle in. Him/her obviously likes your daughter so as the trust between them builds hopefully the Lorikeet will get used to hands.

Congratulations on your new family member! They are beautiful birds. You'll be kept entertained that's for sure!

 

[firdy num num]

I'm a mom to a gorgeous little lorikeet, named Paris. And yes clare is completely right! They love Fruit. They eat a liquid diet and gosh, they poop out bullets!! Their cages/gyms need to be clean, I clean out Paris's gym roughly about 2x a week. They can be gym trained and not live in a cage if you want to, my one doesn't live in a cage, I wanted h/s to stay free. They are very energetic so I suggest you give them a lot of toys, I hope I helped. I'm not the Lorikeet guru but jam and cheekybeaks are experts, they have had lorikeets for, I don't know.
Hope you have fun with your little lorikeet.

 

[JAM]

Hey Evelyn welcome!

Congratulations on your new lorikeet they're an interesting bundle of noise and mess to take on!

The only way to tell the sex will be to DNA test.
As an individual bird how they turn out will be very much influenced by you.
I was told females make poor pets but my loveliest and most bonded was a beautiful mustard scaly breasted lorikeet hen so go figure!

Where are you located in the world as that will help with recommending the best type of diet.
Their natural diet is nectar which is wet so you do need a large proportion to be wet and of course hence their messy poopies.

Lorikeets are nippy yes and through experience we have found that when they reach sexual maturity they are at their nippiest.....trying to assert themselves in the same way a human teenager would during puberty.
Then it follows a pattern of hormones. During the height of breeding season they are at their nippiest. Less so towards their mate and if a single lorikeet you could be lucky enough to be regarded as so and avoid that beak. Although other issues arise from being the chosen one which we can go into later.

To avoid nipping? We use distraction techniques. We have bamboo shredders which are used to direct the nip or bite onto rather than our hand which means we aren't reacting to pain and can try to work on enforcing good behaviour. Lorikeets especially as they are highly strung are extremely reactive to any type of stimulus so reacting negatively to a nip for them is a successful venture and they can become super excited about it.

Hormonal behaviour generally starts between 12 and 18 months old. We have found that it seems to be the second bout at around 30 months old that triggers the worst behaviour. Red and Blue were at their worst when they were coming up to 3 and near 4 now they are coping a lot better. Blue the hen, her aggression is more territorial whereas Red's aggression is limited to when he feels Blue is compromised.
Pika is over 2 and is hitting the second hormonal bout and he is suffering with aggressive tendencies and wanting to wiggle his butt for pleasure on anything he can find (Lucy is too young still lol poor thing). We are starting to use a step up perch for him to get him out of his cage and once out he calms down and acts more normal. Approach him inside the cage and it's a lottery as to whether you come out with an intact finger. Once we get through this with him we're going to have better times as he starts to deal with the hormones better (we hope lol). Then we have Lucy to get through!!!!
We find both the males and females get nesty and show aggression, different levels depending on which one as they all have differing bonding levels with each member of the family. I went from being Blue's favourite to the most hated thing on the planet a few months later and now only friends if I have a treat....even then I get a reminder nip that it's a temporary friendship.

Rope toys? Best to avoid. Not only can they potentially damage the sensitive papillia on the tip of their tongue but strands can be picked up and consequently ingested with the risk of blocking their gastric tract.

For the poop, newspaper and baby wipes are our weapons of choice. Plastic sheeting you can use too. I recommend covering up two or three sides of the cage to prevent the projections but even then ours have been working out how to get them everywhere.

That'll do for now, have a read of the good, bad as ugly for even more info.

 

[CheekyBeaks]

I've only just come across your thread here now but thought I would paste in my reply from our PM earlier in the week for others to read too ....


I personally feel that the wet mix is more important than having dry mix. Often the wet and dry mixes will have very different ingredients as well so feeding both offers more variety in nutrient sources. Lories also have shorter and less muscular digestive systems and do need to softer diet for them to be able to digest effectively.
My feeding routine is to feed a bowl of fresh fruits and veggies and a wet mix smoothie (wet mix with pureed fruit and veggies) in the morning, In the afternoon I give a plain wet mix with a bowl of dry mix.
Both sexes can make great pets, I do find hens can become moodier when mature and looking to breed though. Maturity can hit anywhere from around 9 months old with rainbows. It can be difficult to deal with hormonal birds but have basic training in place early on can help a lot. Also keeping to a lower energy diet which can be very difficult with lories due to their sugary diets can also help to control severe hormonal behaviours.
It is normal for a new bird to be shy, time and patience should see him come around but don't try to rush him. Physical contact requires a lot of trust between you and your bird and can take weeks or even months.
The only thing I can recommend for the poop is to hang a sheet over the back of the cage, it is hard to control and they really can shoot it about I'm fortunate all of mine live in suspended aviaries outside that are super easy to clean and maintain and only have to handle the mess inside when I have babies to raise.

 

[RoxieW]

You could consider getting a cage with plexiglass sides. I had the cage I ordered modified and the back and front are plexiglass. And the two sides and top are wire. I love the front because the entire front is the door so it makes cleaning Ollie's cage a breeze. He's a conure so doesn't have the poop like you have to deal with. But on the companies web page where I ordered this cage, I saw someone had posted their cage picture that they had modified so all 4 sides were plexiglass and top was wire and it was for a lorie. I like that Ollie can look out without an unobstructed view and we can see him too without looking through bars. Not sure why this is sideways I added a poster to the outside of the plexiglass on the back of his cage.

Another picture, this was taken before I added poster to the back.

 

[Lisaberry]

Struggling with an 18month old female rainbow (jade) hand reared from 5 weeks. She has chosen my 15 y.o son (B1)although until 2 weeks ago spent all day with me. Happy to chat, sit on my shoulder, eat with me etc then bam someone flicked a switch. she attacked my face whilst I was brushing my teeth, a task she always loved, leaving me bleeding quite badly and the kids petrified. Later that morning she was back to normal. Five days later she again let me have it. I’m hesitant to hold her as she now whistles a high pitched warning at me (even first thing in the morning when I go to feed her).Yesterday she was with B1, hopped of him (literally) came to me then 30 seconds later bit me. This happened twice. Helppppp. Please if you can just give me some ideas on how to deal with her I’d really appreciate it. I try to keep my distance when B1 has her but he has school and she’s never been locked in her cage except over night. I had hoped she would be “my” baby but obviously she had other ideas

 

[BrenRuss]

i know it’s tough but u need to persist and try to get ur confidence back. Just take it slow and bit by bit u will both start to feel better together but ur son will always be no1 they always pick a favourite and bond with that person.

It’s best to try spending time with ur bird without ur son around food treats can be a good starting point. From my experience they can definitely pick up when people are less confident and they will act up and try to
Dominate these people.

I wud suggest getting ur son to say a quick goodbye to the bird of a morning b4 school then u get it out shortly after and spend time together it doesn’t take long and things will improve. They can lash out without warning, but usually there’s a trigger or some warning signs which u get better at picking up over time. My wife has had similar issues with our bird from time to time but things go much more smoothly if I’m not around.

 

[simon777]

I have bitten mum on the face and it made her very scared of me. she wouldn't let me go to her at all telling me she was just too scared. her solution was to get an oven mitt to hold up near her face to make her feel safer. at first I would try to pull the oven mitt away and turn it into a game but I understood that she was just trying to feel safe and I know how important it is for me to feel safe so now I let her keep it. anytime she has the oven mitt on now I will calm down so she feels safe again. I even like to play with the oven mitt now when it is laying around the place. also being such an intelligent being I understand what mum is saying to me and mum expects me to understand. us birdies are more intelligent than any human.

 

[BrenRuss]

It does happen unfortunately there are triggers which can cause a reaction, and over time u will get better get learning those however there are times where it must be hormonal as there seems to be no rhyme or reason

 

[BrenRuss]

I must admit being the ‘chosen one’ I rarely if ever get that side myself but my wife has been on the end of several over our time.