Lorikeet behaviour (moved from Chat Room)

[avinet]

djolem wrote:

hello everyone.
i have a rainbow Lorrikeet who is about nearly 3 years old
iv noticed the behavior has changed.
im unsure of its gender, but i am assuming its a female, because as far as i know, i have read that male lorrikeets are more playful and the females are more aggressive.
so im assuming it is a female.
because its usually aggressive to all of the family members besides me.
The lorrikeet always goes behind cabinet units in dark corners
making some sort of squeaking noise, usually when someone puts their hand in there she attacks, but when i do, she gets all puffy grabs onto my finger and tries to lay on it and make those squeaking noises, and she has toy balls with the bell inside of them, and tries laying on that to. because i remember the lorrikeet i had when i was small never had that behavior, it was always playful. so could these signs indicate that its a female that is ready to mate. because im very unsure. just hope i can get feedback on this, thank you very much.

This message was copied from the Chat Room to make replying easier.

[avinet]

Hi djolem, and welcome to the Forum

As you suspect it sounds like you have a female Rainbow ready to breed! The behaviour you describe, especially going behind cupboards and squeaking sounds are typical. As well as that, it is also common for a female to bond with a human male, and become possessive of that human, and aggressive to all other members of the household.

Similarly a male wll often bond to a female human and also be aggressive, in fact I have found no differenc ein aggression between female and male Rainbows - both can be little terrors at times, armed with a needle sharp beak

All I can suggest is to hope the hormones die down pretty soon! It might be worth putting some sort of nest box (with wood shavings in it) in her cage - she will likely us it and that is preferable to hiding behind cupboards - an accident waiting to happen. She also might lay two eggs - it is important to not remove them until she deserts them, and let her sit on them until she gets tired of sitting. Removing the eggs will encourage her to lay more while going through a laying and sitting cycle may cause the hormones to turn off.

cheers,

Mike