Best Time Hand Rear Rainbow Lorikeet Also Losing Feathers

[jac525252]

Hello

We have a Problem ! List the more serious one first, A friend of mine has a pair of raibow loriceets which have had a baby, Its approximatly 5 weeks old and recently he has been taking the baby Lorikeet out of the box to get used to him. Duration of time approx 5 minits a day to get used to him. Baby Loriceet is very placid and seem very content im told. Approximately removing him 4 times from the cage he noticed its started losing its head feathers Only !

Question What could be causing this ? seems the parents may be removing the feathers ? but no signs of disturbance to skin ! skin is not discoloured ! Its feed 3 times a day by the parent Loriceet my friend makes them new wet feed three times a day. This consists of oats, almonds, honey small amount and Loriceet mix, this all is combined and crushed in a blender. They are also feed apples, mango and sunflower seeds also bottle brush flowers !


He Was wondering what could be causing this Issue ? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated

Now to the more lighter note Question Wondering what's the best method to train the baby Loriceet he would like it to be friendly and get used to him and may by one day talk if possible !

Your Feedback will be greatly appreciated

[avinet]

Two problems which are solved by the same action! 

If the baby is losing feathers only on its head, and its wing and tail feathers are coming through normally then the baby is being plucked by one or both of the parents, and it needs to be removed for hand feeding, which will also ensure it is a tame friendly pet bird. Since it is already used to being handled then removing it for hand feeding will be an easy transition.  If it is not removed then the plucking will likely increase and the baby may develop significant problems. 

The mix your friend is using can be also used to hand feed the baby, using a bent spoon (see scas.org.au/html/hand_rearing_part_1.html for a photo of a bent spoon - squeezed up at the tip to form a sort of funnel).  Lorikeets are very easy to feed and also easy to wean since they wean onto the food they are being hand fed.  I have to say your friend is going to unnecessary lengths with the mix - straight Lorikeet mix is fine and especially cut out the honey.  It has no nutritional value and is just pure calories.  Also the almonds is a high fat food - there is enough fat in the lorikeet mix to provide nutritional requirements.  The oats is neither here or there - I wouldn't bother. Fruit is good but sunflower is not good for Lorikeets - their digestive system is not designed for getting good nutrition out of seed.

Some Lorikeets are good talkers, some never talk - which one your friend will have is unknown - if it wants to talk it will talk, but if it doesn't then nothing will make it talk.  I think males are better talkers but since sexing Rainbows by appearance is near impossible that is a speculative view on my part.

cheers,

Mike