Introducing a new baby

[bretteelizabeth]

Hi all,

I have 2 Lorikeets - Pistachio who I've had for just over a year and Zazu who we introduced a month or so ago.

My lovely Pistachio is such a huge personality, adores wrestling (will grab my finger and roll over so I wrestle with him) and is very gentle otherwise (with humans).

My question is this. I recently introduced Zazu. He's lovely but seems to be quite hand shy (especially with my male housemate - maybe he's a girls bird lol) which were working on.

When Pistachio and Zazu are allowed out to play together (supervised) Pistachio constantly licks Zazus nostrils and seems to try and hook his beak in there. They don't get along very well but this is definitely the most concerning behaviour.

Is nostril licking/biting normal??

[avinet]

I would suspect that it is just the older bird demonstrating to the younger Zazu that he is the boss bird in the household - just a bit of domination and not anything to worry about. In general Rainbows seem to get along well with each other, but since you have had Pistachio for a while he will consider himself top bird and Zazu needs to be reminded of this.

As always when introducing a new bird, just keep an eye on things and be ready to intervene if necessary, but to some extent you have to leave them to sort it out themselves.

cheers,

Mike

[bretteelizabeth]

Thanks for that Mike.

I'm trying to leave them to sort it out but Pistachio seems to want none of Zazu unless its to lick and beak his nostrils lol.

I'll continue to leave them to their own devices - again, supervised, and hope for the best.

Thanks