Help please!! I'm a new mother all over again!

[sidsbits]

2 weeks ago I proudly bought home a 7 week old, hand-reared baby lorrikeet.  My family and I - particularly I - am enjoying him, "Sid", immensely.  But, just as when I bought home my first human child 8 years ago, I am now anxious about whether or not I am feeding him correctly, and not getting him into bad habits.  It has been mostly guesswork.  Sid enjoys about 4 wet lorry mix feeds a day and I have offered him some fresh fruit but he is mostly uninterested in it.  Is it too early for him to enjoy fruits and vegetables?  Also, what foods are considered "treats" to encourage behaviour I like.

I am brand new to the world of parrots and I am already gaining a sense of just how clever Sid is.  I would like to be a step ahead if I can to avoid problems/bad habits down the track.  Any words of wisdom would be so appreciated!

[avinet]

Nov 22, 2013 19:34:13 GMT 10 sidsbits said:

2 weeks ago I proudly bought home a 7 week old, hand-reared baby lorrikeet.  My family and I - particularly I - am enjoying him, "Sid", immensely.  But, just as when I bought home my first human child 8 years ago, I am now anxious about whether or not I am feeding him correctly, and not getting him into bad habits.  It has been mostly guesswork.  Sid enjoys about 4 wet lorry mix feeds a day and I have offered him some fresh fruit but he is mostly uninterested in it.  Is it too early for him to enjoy fruits and vegetables?  Also, what foods are considered "treats" to encourage behaviour I like.

I am brand new to the world of parrots and I am already gaining a sense of just how clever Sid is.  I would like to be a step ahead if I can to avoid problems/bad habits down the track.  Any words of wisdom would be so appreciated!

Welcome to our Forum, I'm sure you will find lots of useful information here.  Have a good look through the Lorikeets section - there have been a lot of posts about Rainbows (I assume it is a Rainbow?) in there.

Are you still hand feeding him or is he eating by himself all the time?  At 7 weeks a Rainbow is normally still be hand fed and I have found that 9 weeks is a normal weaning age.  Wet Lorikeet mix is fine as a food - at this time of year I would be mixing it up morning and evening and leaving the dish in the cage with him until the next dish of fresh food.  He should also have some dry Lorikeet powder, and of course a dish of fresh water.  He will eventually start eating the dry food as well as the wet.  It is never too early to introduce other foods, so cut up some fruit and place it in a separate dish in the cage - I find green apples are most enjoyed, but grapes (cut in half), oranges, mandarins, mango, paw paw, strawberries, as well as other fruits may be taken - they are all different and some like one and not another fruit so just try different fruit.  As he starts trying different foods, you might try some vegies such as corn, capsicum, carrot and greens - again some will eat them and some won't.  The real treat for them is nectar bearing flowers such as Grevillea, Bottle brush, Wattle and Eucalypt.  We have a flowering red Western Australia Gum in flower at the moment which the wild Lorikeets love.  So try to get some prunnings, a couple of days a week at least, to also give him.

One issue with Rainbows is a tendency to develop nippy behaviour - and they have a very very sharp beak.  There are a couple of good articles to read about Lorikeets and biting in particular that you should read.  The first is an excellent general article about Lorikeets - covering all sorts of good information, including about biting whiel the second is an article that was on my old shop website specifically about biting - that web site is now closed down but the article can be reached via web archives,

www.kcbbs.gen.nz/lori/ar/behavi0our.html

web.archive.org/web/20091017225526/http://www.mooloolabapets.com.au/html/lorikeets.html

Hope this all helps and please get back to us with any further questions you might have

cheers,

Mike

[sidsbits]

Thanks Mike for those great links.

Will have to try to give Sid (yes a rainbow lorrikeet) some dry mix as well. And probably change the cage set up. The cage has two extra large bowls at different sides of cage so will have to come up with idea of how to set up to provide fresh fruit and veg as well as the dry mix, water and wet mix. He often poos in the food accidentally so hopefully he will grow out of that.

I have come across several articles about "potty training". Have you done this successfully? It almost seems to good to be true.....? I definitely would like to give it a try.

How old is a mature bird? My affection for him is growing stronger every day and with that my appetite for more information is booming. I so want to do the right thing by him.

At the moment I am noticing that Sid nips or bites when he's probably tired so we just say "No biting! Time Out." and promptly return him to his cage.

Thank you very much for your support.

Jo

[avinet]

Usually the way to stop pooing in the food dishes is to have them pretty high up in the cage - you need four dishes with a lorikeet - wet mix dry mix water and fruit. If it is a small cage then there is a problem!

I have known people who have potty trained a parrot - but I have never attempted it myself - I have 20 birds in the house currently and it is easier to clean up after them, but I don't have any Lorikeets currently. I have never heard of successful Lorikeet potty training - they are different!!! I really don't think they are even aware they are doing it often.

Maturity for a Rainbow is probably around 12 months - that is the age they can start breeding but usually they are 24 months before breeding is successful.

cheers,

Mike

[sidsbits]

Thanks again Mike!

Sid has a fairly big cage with an open roof and play area - recommended by the seller (only the best for him!) - and I have gone out today and bought 2 extra feed bowls which I have positioned high. I will just keep putting out some fresh food in tiny pieces and hope he goes for it.

Another couple of questions about the cage I have:-

1. Should I keep his cage in the same part of the room (main living/open plan kitchen/living where all the action is) or is it better to keep moving it about? Am thinking about his territorial nature, need for security, and my need to manage family space and thinking of all the mess he makes. So far he has stayed in the middle of the room so he can watch us, listen to us talk, and come out and play on wooden floors instead of carpet. However the middle of the room is not necessarily the most practical for us as a family.

2. I notice he spends all his time up high (natural for a bird,... I know) but how will he ever play with these "foot toys" I've read about. The bottom of his cage has a wire rack. Do you think I should remove it so he can run/walk about?

One more pressing question ........

3. How do I play with him. He steps up when he wants, kisses me, leans in against my neck and I have started to be able to rub his neck with my chin or index finger but other than that I don't know what to do with him. Is 9 weeks old too young for anything else? I don't want to hurt him but I'd like to be more physical with him when the kids are at school.

You have been so generous with your time in responding and we both appreciate it. Thank you very much,

Jo and Sid

PS I can hardly believe you have 20 birds!!!!

[Laraine]

Welcome to our forum, looking forward to hearing about your adventures with your new baby.

[avinet]

Keep persevering with fresh food - eventually his curiosity will win and he will start eating it.

Now to questions

1/  keep the cage in one spot - somewhere it doesn't get in the way too much but where he can see what is happening when he is in the cage - I usually put cages against a wall - and on the wood floor is certainly much preferred!  Just a not about that - try to clean up droppings at least daily if not more often - wood could be marked by Lorikeet dropping if they are not cleaned up.  You may also want to put something against the wall behind the cage to stop that getting squirted on - maybe an old sheet hanging there with the cage about 30 cm away from the wall.  Easier to wash a sheet than a wall.

2/  He will learn to play with the foot toys as he matures - he is a very young bird still, and very much in a learning stage of what he can and can't do.  Wire bottoms are probably a good idea with a Lorikeet - newspaper on the floor of the cage can get pretty yucky very quickly and a grid helps to keep things a bit cleaner.  Again he will learn to handle the grill OK.  Some of our cages have a grill on the bottom - mainly the Alex's since they will chew the trays if they can get to them - plastic inthe cages we currently are using.  Other cage bottoms  for the Cockatiels, Ringnecks, Princess's and Greys are newspaper - changed daily.

3/  Most parrots are not pets that you can really play with like you can a dog or cat - some will but most won't.  A Rainbow that you try to do more than you are at the moment will likely get pretty worked up, get even more hyperactive than they normally are, and start biting. If you want to do more than just a cuddle and a scratch then trick training is the way to go.  Many parrots get real enjoyment with learning tricks using positive reinforcement methods.  I have a couple of local friends who have made great progress with Ringnecks and I'll put some Youtube links below to show what can be done - and Rainbows are just as smart as Ringnecks so are well capable of learning - if their hyper activity levels are controllable!.









20 birds is actually a decrease - at our peak we had 32 pet birds in the house but time and age has taken its toll.  We owned a pet shop specializing in birds for 20 years before retiring, and too many birds too cute to sell came through the hand raising process.  Currently we have 10 Alexandrines from 18 to 6 years in age,  2 Ringnecks, - father at 23 years and his 12 month son (mother died of pancreatic cancer a few months ago), 3 cockatiels all over 20 years old and the remainders of an original flock or 10, 2 Princess Parrots, around 17 years old, a Plum head about 12 years old and a pair of African Greys, 8 and 7 years old.

cheers,

Mike