How do i find a suitable partner for my lorikeet

[oldmanbeefjerky]

hello,

I have a red collared olive mutation lorikeet, whom as far as i know is male, the people at the pet shop are very certain he is male, based on his bossy behavior alone, as well as some other things.
I am about to move out of the northern territory, and now the opportunity to get a partner for my lori is closing. I plan on getting another red collared olive lorikeet from the same breeder he came from.

My only concern is, there any way of knowing if they will get along?

will just any two lorikeets of opposite sex get along? and if i bring my own bird to the breeder, could i test to see if they get along straight away to determine whether or not they will get along in the long run?

My main concern is finding a partner that my bird wont end up getting into a fight with in the 3 day car trip down from darwin to queensland.
Im not completely concerned with them breeding, i just need a companion for him. this is mainly because recently he has become very clingy, he cant bear to be left alone, especially in his cage, and when hes on me, its impossible to get him off me, and this even gets annoying, since he nibbles my neck after a while when he wants me to shake him around.
really, he needs a partner,

one other concern is, if by some chance, i get another bird of the same gender, will they still get along and play with one another? if its two males , will they still play with each other? or will they fight?

someone please help! its extremely urgent!

[avinet]

Red-collar Lorikeets are quite common in Queensland, so if you are unable to find one before leaving the NT then don't despair

In general lorikeets get on very well with each other and it is rare for two to be put together and not get on OK with each other. That applies whether they are a true pair, two males or two females - they don't seem to care The colour also doesn't matter - birds have no colour prejudice So if you end up with a non-olive it won't influence how well they will get on. Taking your bird to see the potential new one might be helpful but it is just as likely your bird will have sensory overload and you will not get anything useful from the visit. Still, if the breeder is happy for you to do it then no harm would be done.

By the sounds of it your move to Queensland is going to happen soon - if so I would strongly suggest them traveling in separate cages. Those cages don't have to be large - they are just travel cages - but the stress of traveling might cause discord that would otherwise not happen in a stable environment.

Traveling for three days with lockets in cages has the potential to be rather messy for the car No doubt you will have plenty of protection for the seats, but be sure to leave at least the front open for them to see and to get plenty of ventilation, and be aware that leaving birds in a hot car can be just as fatal as it can be for dogs or kids

Have a good move and let us know how you go

cheers,

Mike

[oldmanbeefjerky]

i forgot to mention this, i took my bird over to a friends house who also had a lori, one time when we went over for a BBQ, we wanted to see if theyd get along, but their rainbow lorikeet kept nibbling my ones feet, he objected, and they wound up doing battle. i dont want this to happen between mine and the new lori.

we only have the one cage, but it is rather large, so its easily sectioned in half without sacrificing much of the space my bird would already be otherwise using, and my bird isnt really bothered being locked in a cage so long as he can see someone he recognizes.

if i dont seperate them, what might happen exactly?
before the move they have about month to get to know each other /

[avinet]

That sort of behaviour isn't unusual when introducing a couple of birds - especially introducing your bird into the other bird's territory. It takes a bit of "I'm the boss here" behaviour to sort out the pecking order.

From your initial post I thought the move was imminent. I month should be plenty of time for a new bird to settle in OK. My experience with many, many Lorikeets is that in 90% of cases it only takes a couple of days for two Lorikeets to accept each other and be friends. If the birds will be together for 3 or 4 weeks then there shouldn't be any problem them traveling together.

However when you bring the new bird home I strongly recommend having them in separate cages for a short while and let them meet on neutral ground. Once they get on OK away form the main cage then you can introduce the new bird to that cage. Lorikeets do tend to be a bit territorial and if you put the new bird into the main cage immediately they may be some squabbling and the new bird may be stopped form sharing the food etc.

As I said, that getting to know each other should only take 2 or 3 days, so the two cage setup (cages side by side) is a very temporary situation.

cheers,

Mike