Lorikeet turned bad

[Karlen]

Hi, I have an approx 3yr old male lorikeet and he used to love me but now he is obsessed with my boyfriend! Now whenever he is out of his cage he wants to be on my boyfriend and if he can't get to him he will squawk until he either goes back out to his cage or back to my boyfriend.
What's with this all of a sudden obsession? Does he need a girlfriend? I recently bought him a nesting box to protect him from the cold at night (he's now in his nesting box a lot). Would this have caused the change?


Ta

 

[zoo mom]

Sounds like he could be hormonal but I know very little about lorikeets. @JAM should be able to answer questions for you.

 

[CheekyBeaks]

It could possibly be hormones, Lories have a very strong drive to breed and it looks as though he may have chosen your boyfriend as his chosen mate. If it is an option I would remove the nest box, unless he is living outside there really is no need to have it in his cage, and see if his behaviour changes.

 

[JAM]

I'd be swinging towards hormones. We have found that the years 2-3 yrs old in ours have shown the strongest urges and have resulted in some pretty darn evil behaviours!

As @CheekyBeaks has mentioned remove the nesting box. I suspect that this may have been the trigger sadly.
Instead of a nesting box get a nice leafy bunch of eucalyptus to huddle against. They're hardy things lorikeets don't worry about him being warm. In the wild they will have lower temps to deal with!

In terms of handling this now, try to interact with him without your boyfriend. Become the caregiver of food and such. Do realise that hormones will be around for a while and that your little man's life will revolve around these phases. Do also be aware that he will be likely to want to bite so ensure you get used to what his posture is like before hand so you can work on preventing rather than dealing with the bite. Easier said than done I know.

I am going through similar with Pikachu who is hormones up right now and is super protective of Lucy. There are just going to be sometimes when he needs to be left alone. No point trying to pursue him if all he wants to do is protect and attack so start over again later or next day. Patience is a virtue with these hormonal monsters.

A good read is the skippy link.....
When Skippy comes to visit - nice, short article on hormonal lories | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[Blancaej]

I would say hormones, too! Definitely remove the nesting box to help discourage nesting behavior. Jam has given you great advice on how to handle him going forward. Good luck and hang in there.