I cross posted to another forum to get some good advice from my friend, Melanie. As usual, she delivers. Info below...
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The possessiveness she displays is very normal lorikeet behaviour. Many lorikeets turn into "child biters" because children are very good at "rewarding" the bites. When bitten, children scream, jump, cry and generally make other exciting and funny reactions that lorikeets enjoy watching. My lorikeet bites my sister and my neighbour's lorikeet bites their daughter and son (all around 10 years old). Birds are very visual creatures and can easily tell when someone is intimidated by them- children aren't good at feigning confidence around a lorikeet (frankly, not many adults are either!). The best way to teach a bird not to bite- is not to get bitten! It would be a good idea to perch-train the bird which means to train it to step-up onto a hand-held perch and reward it with praise and its favourite treats when it does so. This will prevent the bird from biting fingers and in turn being reinforced (or rewarded) by screams etc. Next, you must look at transferring that aggression onto something more acceptable than tender flesh- such as a toy. For instance, my lorikeet takes her aggression out on some balls with bells in them, or a squeaky toy. If the lorikeet is doing something unwanted (eg. tongue up nose) put a treat in front of its beak, lure it away (onto the shoulder perhaps) step it up onto a perch and let it lick and bite the toy instead. Praise the bird and and reward it with the treat, get very excited when it does the right thing; make a HUGE deal out of this. If the bird bites, simply put it on the floor (or somewhere safe- away from the family) and leave it by itself for a while. It will soon learn that biting= alone time. Don't use the cage as time-out. The cage should be a place of sanctuary, not punishment. Negative connotations toward the cage can create a cage-aggressive/territorial bird, which is counterproductive to preventing the bird from biting. To make her like everyone, try and get the kids to be the ones to feed her and make her treats. Have you tried mealworms? My lorikeet does ANYTHING for a mealworm. Spinach, any kind of fruit, soaked sunflower seeds, nectar, fruit juice- all great treats and rewards.
Below is an excellent article that helps explain how the lorikeet thinks and feels. It isn't the bird's fault is reacts the way it does and it is up to us to understand why. Good luck with your lorikeet and I wish you all the patience and understanding you can muster!
www.mooloolabapets.com.au/html/lorikeets.html"It's not hard to see the attractiveness of lorikeets to the potential bird owner, as they are a riot of colour, are always the most active and interesting birds in a group and respond readily to human contact. Yet these same birds that play so amusingly, and entertain so much, are probably the most complex in personality of all Australian birds. They can be playing with you one minute, and then give you the mother of all bites, the next. Why do they do this is what I will try to answer in this article, but it wont be a simple, cut and dried answer because lorikeets are anything but straight forward.
I often wonder how many people have been lost to aviculture as a result of being bitten, and bitten hard, by their new pet lorikeet. Make no mistake, they may be a small bird but they can inflict a very painful bite. Realize something at this stage, if you are going to have a pet lorikeet then you are going to be bitten, just how hard and how often will depend on your ability to "read" your bird. If he is charging at you full speed with his head down and pupils dilating, then watch out, you are about to be bitten. On the other hand if he is hopping around on two feet with his head up, then most likely he wants to play. You must learn to "read" the signs to avoid the bites. Don't ever think he bit you for no reason, there is always a reason and he knows what it is, so it's up to you to be a bit more "tuned in" to your birds habits to work out why, so as to avoid a repetition.
There are six main reasons why he will bite you, they are:
1. Playing.
2. Teasing.
3. Invading.
4. Grabbing.
5. Transferred Aggression.
6. Perception of Ownership.
The first four are quiet clear and straightforward but it is the last two, which may surprise you.
Playing
Pet lorikeets love to play. Their energy and enthusiasm is seemingly boundless. No matter when you take them from their cage they are ready and willing to engage in all sorts of activities with you. But they have one small problem; they become quite ‘hyper’ with all the playing and activity. It is like a build up of adrenaline, or the lorikeet equivalent, within them. They play so hard and rough (this is how they like it) that this energy seems to build up inside them until they are almost fit to burst. They have to release this pent up tension, or whatever, inside of them, so they bite you! There is no malice intended, it's just a lorikeets way of coming ’down’ from this built up ‘high’. Understand this and you will go a long way towards avoiding unpleasant confrontations with your bird.
Teasing
This is pretty basic, if you deliberately tease your bird you are asking to be bitten. If you give your bird something to play with and try and take it away from him you are teasing him and he will bite you. If you play tug-o-war with a pen with him, and don't let him win, then you are teasing him and deserve to be bitten. If you do anything that he dislikes, and you should know your birds likes and dislikes, he will bite you. For example: Don't try to interfere with him in any way while he's bathing or he will draw blood. Don't touch his food while he is eating, or you will regret it. ‘Crunching’ up newspaper near my Rainbow will guarantee I get bitten, so I don't do it. ‘Crunching’ up a plastic shopping bag near him sends him psycho, so this is definitely a no-no! Get to know your bird and avoid the bites, it will be easier on him and less painful on you.
Invading
This is also fairly straightforward. His cage is his. This is his space. If you put your hand inside, you are invading his territory and risk being bitten. This is because lorikeets are very territorial and will defend to the death, their habitat. When I let my bird out of his cage, I open the door, put my hand near the entrance and call him out. He will race over and jump on my hand and come out. I never get bitten doing it this way. If I were to put my hand inside and try and grab him, it's bleeding time!
Grabbing
Lorikeets don't like to have a hand encircle them. Grab them this way and they will struggle, fight and bite like crazy and you will let go! It takes a very special bird and a very special relationship for a lorikeet to allow someone to hold him this way. My wife has it with out bird, but she is the only one. The easiest and safest way is to offer your hand or arm and let them come to you. Go for the aggressive grab and you will bleed.
Transferred Aggression
I have learnt this from careful observation of my bird when getting bitten, and yes, it was a painful path of discovery. All birds have favourites. Our bird was given to me as a Christmas present. He was my bird, however over the next few months he showed a distinct preference for my wife. Now there is nothing unusual in this. Eventually he became my wife's bird (his choice) to the point where she can do absolutely anything with him, break all the rules. She can encircle him with her hand, pick him up by his tail or grab his tail and pull him backwards, it doesn't matter. As far as he is concerned she is just playing with him and he loves it. We get on fine together, my(!) bird and I, but I wouldn't dare try any of those manoeuvres if I didn't want to bleed. So this is what happens. My wife will be playing with him roughhouse (the way he likes it) and this ‘thing’ will be building up inside of him. Eventually he gets to the point where he must bite someone to release this pent up excitement. He will look around and runs very quickly towards the nearest person to him and bites them, anyone except my wife! You see he loves her so much he won't bite her but he has to bite someone and the closest person is ’it’. To them it is unbelievable! This awful bird has bitten them for nothing. They were not even playing with him and yet he bit them. Who would want a nasty mongrel of a bird like that?
Once again it comes down to understanding your bird. I call it Transferred Aggression, for want of a better name, and it is as real as the bite you will get if you are not prepared for it. When this happens in our home, no one gets bitten now, as we know what is happening and keep out of reach. What he does then is to find some object, anything, and attack it, hurling it to the floor! This has the desired effect and Mr Hyde once again becomes Dr Jekyll.
Perception of Ownership
This is probably the most vague reason of all for being bitten and it is about what he thinks, not you. You see, your lorikeet will bite you because of a perceived wrongdoing by you. It doesn't matter that you know, absolutely without question, that you have done nothing to annoy or anger him, this is not about what you know, it's about what he thinks! If he thinks you are invading his space, he will bite you. It doesn't matter that you only put him on top of that old table to give him a new area of interest, as far as he is concerned you gave him this table and now you are trying to remove him from it. This is his space, his area, his playground, you gave it to him and if you try to remove him from it, or take it away, you risk being bitten.
You are sitting reading the newspaper with your bird with you and he is annoying you by constantly running over the pages and ’squirting’ on the story you are reading. To distract him you give him a plastic pen to play with and he has a ball biting, rolling and throwing the pen about, but tries to take it back and most likely he will bite you. Why? You know you only gave him the loan of the pen for a short period but remember this is not about what you know it is about what he thinks! He thinks you gave him this plaything to keep, so trying to remove it so soon definitely deserves a bite! It's all about the perception of ownership. So why does a lorikeet think this way when most other birds would not even consider the question? It is because they are intelligent. Never make the mistake of underestimating your lorikeets level of intelligence; they are very clever birds.
Those are just two examples of situations where you could get bitten, and not know why. Start applying the ’Perception of Ownership’ rules to situations where you have been bitten and don't know why, and you will go a long way to avoiding a repeat. Just start thinking like a lorikeet and not like a human.
The first four areas I covered, playing, teasing, invading and grabbing are all quite basic and may have been covered before. The last two however, transferred aggression and perceptions of ownership are my own theories based on studying my bird, and others, over a number of years. Initially you may not agree with my conclusions but the next time you get bitten (and with a lorikeet, there is always a next time) think about my suggestions and you may surprise yourself by realising the answer is right here.
So after reading all this you must be thinking right now who would want to own one of these complex, savage, Jekyll & Hyde birds?
Well let me tell you, get yourself a young handraised bird and put plenty of time into him and he will reward you like no other bird I know. I also breed and raise Sun Conures and they are lovely birds, fantastic colours, wonderful temperament (they would never bite you), playful, loving and entertaining and yet comparing Suns to lorikeets is like comparing chalk and cheese. The Lorikeet is much more intelligent than the Sun and this intelligence is what sets them apart from most other birds. Their antics, curiosity, vocabulary (they can be taught to speak very well) and devotion are unlimited and without question, the more time you put into your bird the more you will be rewarded. The companionship and entertainment our lorikeet provides is always rewarding, always expanding, always amazing and we would not part with him for any amount of money.
So do yourself a favour and try a pet lorikeet. The good times far outweigh the bad times from this beautiful product of nature. We almost take for granted our lorikeets, yet in other parts of the world we are envied for having these beautiful birds readily and cheaply available. Overseas visitors are constantly telling us we don't seem to appreciate our Lorikeets. I couldn't agree more.
Author: Jim Hogan (Sydney, NSW)
, I don't know her treatment before we got her I know she was swearing quite a bit and hates when we get to loud, she does a very high pitch scream and gets very upset, I have some suspicions that maybe she was miss treated or something to that effect. We have only had her about 1 month and I was not told about her previous owners or even how long they had her, she is not overly keen on my husband and runs when hes near, she is slowly coming around so I think maybe it was a male that did something to her, I'm not bird expert the only other birds I've ever had were Lovebirds and they were in an avairy out in the yard, so this is a whole new experience for me. Maybe the main things my girly needs is love and proper care and she will come around to all of us, she is so sweet and I really want her to fit in to our family, Thank you all for you replys....
