Looking After Lories and Lorikeets

While most parrots have the same basic care needs, lories and lorikeets are quite unique. What makes them different is their brush-like tongue. This tongue is designed to collect nectar from plants, while most parrots have a tongue that is perfectly developed to manipulate seeds.

Because these parrots require their own unique diet, lories need very different care compared to other parrots. The first thing you should consider when you are caring for lories or lorikeets is the diet.

These parrots cannot survive on the usual seed diet of other parrots. However, feeding fresh nectar can get messy, not to mention time consuming. While this used to be the only option for folk wanting to keep lories and lorikeets, today there are simpler diet alternatives.

A pelleted lory diet contains all of the nutrients your parrot will need. Dry nectar also provides a less messy alternative to fresh nectar, although your parrots may not enjoy it quite as much. Adding things such as applesauce, fresh fruit and vegetables together with the occasional fresh nectar can make your lories much happier and healthier.

If you feed your lory or lorikeet a liquid nectar diet, you may think that fresh water isn't very important. However, fresh water is a must for all parrots regardless of diet.

The next thing to consider as you prepare to keep lories or lorikeets is the parrot cage. Although many owners claim that the new diets make lories as easy to care for as other parrots, they still make more mess than your average parrot.

A standard parrot cage has so many bars and little grooves that cleaning bits of fruit or runny bird droppings from the cage can be a right pain.

Probably because of all the fresh fruit, vegetables and nectar in their diets, lories and lorikeets tend to give off an odour if the parrot cage isn't cleaned on a regular basis.

You should try to change papers or litter and wash out all dishes daily. The entire parrot cage should be washed down once a week. If you do not clean the cage regularly, you could make your parrot ill. Pieces of fruit and vegetables that he threw around as he was eating will become rotten and moldy. If he picks them up and eats them, he could develop a bacterial infection.

Check out our parrot cages which all have a sliding bottom tray and castor wheels, all designed to aid cleaning.

Finally, just as with other parrots, you should be prepared to spend time working with lories and lorikeets to keep them both tame and sweet. These parrots have a naturally sweet, friendly nature and love to spend time grooming their owners, but if you neglect to handle your lory, he could become timid and afraid of letting you touch him.