new baby

[siua131]

hey so i just brought home a new baby lori about 4 weeks old and i am going to keep hand raising him but i don't know to much about the bird and i was wondering if anyone knew any tips or tricks on what to do to keep him happy and to keep him from biteing me so any info on what to do just to be a better owner would be a great help thanks so much

[missmess]

Have you ever handraised a bird before? If not, the breeder was very irresponsible for selling him to you so young.

[Jack]

I find lorikeets are relatively 'easy' to handrear. They're very active so make sure you have lots of toys and a large cage. And I'm sure you're well awhere of the mess they make?

[avinet]

I take it you have never hand raised a baby bird before? Fortunately Rainbow Lorikeets are just about the easiest of all parrots to hand rear.

Before I talk about Lorikeets in particular I will refer you to a couple of pages I wrote about hand rearing in general - see

scas.org.au/html/hand_rearing_part_1.html
scas.org.au/html/hand_rearing_part_2.html

Everything there refers to Lorikeets as much as any other parrot, and in particular note the suggested diet for feeding lorkeets. If you do not have access to Roudybush then straight Lorikeet wet mix can be used - I just found that growth rates were quicker with the mix I suggest. In addition be guided to what the breeder was feeding the baby - at least initially it is best to start out with the same mix - I HOPE the breeder had enough sense to give you some of the mix they were using.

If the baby is only 4 weeks old - basically he will just have pin feathers and not look fully feathered (post us a photo to check it's age) then he probably should be in a container and not in a cage. Once they have a reasonable feather covering then they can move into a cage. If you look at my photo below the baby with it's back to us, mostly down covered, is around 4 weeks, while the one on the right is around 7 weeks old. The 4 week one would still be in a container, kept fairly dark between feeds, while the older one will have been in a cage for maybe a couple of days




Regarding the biting, it is purely because it is scared stiff - at 4 weeks to be suddenly moved to a strange environment with strange people is pretty traumatic and a birds only defence is to bite. Once it realizes that you provide the food, and it has nothing to fear, the biting should go away. Just move slowly and gently with the baby and talk softly and reassuringly to it. It will soon come around.

Having said that I am a little concerned about the biting - I have hand raised well over a thousand babies, and probably around a hundred Rainbows. Some were bred by us, many were bought from breeders, and I never had one bite me as a baby. I do wonder just how old the baby is, and whether it in fact it was being hand raised before you got it. Hopefully you saw it being hand raised before taking it home.

cheers,

Mike

[siua131]

Hey thank you all to the replys the guy was smart enough to sell me some food so i have some of that but i will look into what you were giveing yours and get some of that i will post pictures of him tom afternoon when i get off of work cause i would really like to know the age of the bird and see what you guys think cause i am not for sure this guy was telling me the truth about him he said he was hand raising the bird when i bought him he just pulled him out of the container and fed him in front of me and that was it i have neaver hand raised a bird before but i have researched it ever since i got him and he is doing good and eating good now so i am happy about that and i think you are wright about the biteing cause he has calmed down a lot on it when i first got him i couldn't even get him to come close to me with out taken a bite to the hand but now he is good except for if something scares him andi move to fast then he will take a bite at it but i am happy i can get him out of the cage now without getting bit but i know i got a lot of work to do and i am going to do it i love this little bird a lot and i hope that he will grow to love me as much as i do him but cheack tom and i will post some pics of him so you guys can help me out and tell me the age and what kind of bird you think he is thats again for the help

[siua131]

sorry about the late post tell me what you guys think

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[siua131]

another pic

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[avinet]

Firstly the baby looks around 8 weeks old, pretty well fully feathered. Definitely not 4 weeks. That will explain the biting - too old to hand raise easily. That is not to say it won't make a good pet eventually - with patience I would expect it to calm down, stop being afraid of you and hence stop biting.

The second point to make is that it very much looks like a Rainbow/Scaly-breast hybrid. The lack of solid blue on the head, and the chest colour indicate that it is a hybrid. The photo at amatteroflight.com/gallery2/d/4589-1/Rainbow-Lorikeet_8809.jpg shows a similar huybrid from the wild, while my photo below show the proper chest colour of young pure Rainbows about 12 weeks old.

Again, being a hybrid doesn't mean it can't be a good pet, it is just as likely to end up a good pet as a pure rainbow would.

All of which shows up the potential pitfalls of buying a young bird to hand rear in the mistaken belief it will make it bond to you - the process of hand rearing has nothing at all with whether a young bird will bond or not with you.

Anyway, that's water under the bridge, it just means you will have to work harder to gain the bird's confidence and turn it into a good pet.

cheers,

Mike