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Rescue Lorikeet
Road Block
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hi all. Just yesterday I got a call from a friend who is roommates with a Vet. A Musk Lorikeet had been handed over to them that had been attacked by a Crow. Knowing that I had been looking to get a Parrot and that their house was already full up with dogs cats and birds they gave me a call.
Basically here's what we know.
Musk Lorikeet
Quiet young. At a guess no more then a few months.
Physically healthy despite the Crow attack.
Wings have been (badly) clipped giving us reason to believe he's domestic and making us wonder how on earth he got away.
No Chip or band.
Now this has obviously been a stressful time for the little guy. Between the Crow attack, the vets and finally my place and being driven in between he's understandably rather upset. Unfortunately we got off to a bit of a bad start as I had some trouble getting him into the home cage, after trying to pick him up with a towel resulted in him latching on to the sides of his travel cage we eventually ending up just having to line up the cages, open the door and thankfully he hopped through. He's got a selection of wet forumula water, seed mix (Not good as a staple for loris but at the moment if he hasn't been fed formula regularly we thought he might favor the seed.) And fruit (and apple earlier and now a lorikeet treat bar).
On his first night after being transferred to his cage. He mostly hid in a back corner of his cage (partially covered to give him a dark spot) until it was time to cover his cage. (After which he was apparently more comfortable moving around.
My biggest concern right now is if he's getting enough to eat/drink. While I'm around he doesn't want to leave his spot and the apple atleast was untouched. There was some seed outside the cage though so hopfully he's taken care of himself while I've been out. He'll also start yelling if I approach and will jump around the cage when I open it for food. Now I have good advice from my friend (a parrot but not lorikeet owner) and her vet roommate but basically I want to do right by the little guy so I thought I'd post to see if anyone had advice or experience to share.
Basically here's what we know.
Musk Lorikeet
Quiet young. At a guess no more then a few months.
Physically healthy despite the Crow attack.
Wings have been (badly) clipped giving us reason to believe he's domestic and making us wonder how on earth he got away.
No Chip or band.
Now this has obviously been a stressful time for the little guy. Between the Crow attack, the vets and finally my place and being driven in between he's understandably rather upset. Unfortunately we got off to a bit of a bad start as I had some trouble getting him into the home cage, after trying to pick him up with a towel resulted in him latching on to the sides of his travel cage we eventually ending up just having to line up the cages, open the door and thankfully he hopped through. He's got a selection of wet forumula water, seed mix (Not good as a staple for loris but at the moment if he hasn't been fed formula regularly we thought he might favor the seed.) And fruit (and apple earlier and now a lorikeet treat bar).
On his first night after being transferred to his cage. He mostly hid in a back corner of his cage (partially covered to give him a dark spot) until it was time to cover his cage. (After which he was apparently more comfortable moving around.
My biggest concern right now is if he's getting enough to eat/drink. While I'm around he doesn't want to leave his spot and the apple atleast was untouched. There was some seed outside the cage though so hopfully he's taken care of himself while I've been out. He'll also start yelling if I approach and will jump around the cage when I open it for food. Now I have good advice from my friend (a parrot but not lorikeet owner) and her vet roommate but basically I want to do right by the little guy so I thought I'd post to see if anyone had advice or experience to share.
+1
Posts
My budgies can go overnight without food and be fine (I used hunger to motivate them during hand taming.) But they're seed junkies (I've tried to get them on pellets and veggies but they won't touch them.) So while lorikeets need sugar, I'd expect a lorikeet to at least hold out that long?
You can also try offering a piece of fresh apple to it in your hand. You may have to sit still for 30 minutes but it will teach the bird you = yummy food time, which is good.
Also, there should be specialized Lorikeet food mixes available you can buy to make sure he's getting the right nutrients.
My worry right now is that she won't move around the cage if I'm in the room, just perches and watches me. Approaching the cage gets me yelled at and when I open the cage she panics and jumps around. Which makes offering treats by hand at this stage a bit of a no go. Which is a shame as it's probably the best way to get her trust built up. Perhaps once I can replace my grapes since she knows it's a tasty treat.
As long as there's appropriate food and water in the cage, the bird will go to it (probably when you're away). I don't think you have to worry much about that.
If you want to interact with this bird, and handle it, I recommend you start working on socializing it immediately.
Start slowly, obviously. But start.
The first thing you want to do is teach the bird that you = it gets food. This will end in a hand-tamed bird unless it's got some serious personality issues. (Like the hen in my avatar, who coincidentally is the only budgie of mine I never managed to hand-tame. But she was so nasty she had to live in a separate cage because she killed another hen and endlessly harassed males to mate with her.)
So, this is going to sound mean, but basically the way you hand tame a bird is by only letting it eat when you're around. If you're not in the room, you take the food out of the cage. It shouldn't take longer than 18 hours for the bird to get hungry enough to eat. Be patient, don't move around too much if you can help it. Do NOT restrict water access, and if the bird doesn't eat for 24 hours, keep the food in the cage when you leave the room.
This should make the bird get a little more comfortable being vulnerable around you, and make it associate your presence in the room with that pleasant feeling it gets from eating and being full.
The next step, is being closer to the cage while the bird eats. Withhold food just long enough to motivate the bird into getting over her fear, then don't walk away from the cage after you supply fresh food. The bird should be fairly comfortable with you close by within a week, again assuming it doesn't have some personality issues. You can leave a minute or two after the bird starts eating.
After the bird is comfortable with you nearby, again, withhold food enough to motivate the bird to get past it's fear. Make it eat from the food dish while you're holding it. You have to hold super still, and be ready to wait up to 30 minutes for the bird to approach you. You can attach the food dish to the cage and leave the bird alone after it eats for about a minute or so.
Once the bird is comfortable with that, repeat the last step but make her eat the food out of your hand.
Then move to having the bird sit on your hand to eat.
Then move to having the bird let you remove it from the cage while it's eating.
Then the bird has to get on your hand before food is supplied.
And so on and so forth.
Oh, if the bird isn't chirping, try playing quiet music for it. Especially stuff sung by women with high pitched voices. But make sure it's something you like listening to. In high school I got a couple budgies that refused to chirp until my sisters played something by Miranda Cosgrove and I wound up having to play her stuff on repeat for hours until the birds relaxed enough to start singing on their own.
I don't know how much experience you have with birds, but when you do become able to handle your lorikeet, you can scratch her on the head, but DO NOT pet her anywhere but her head.
Birds have different erogenous zones than humans, and touching the back/wings/chest will arouse a bird. The bird may enjoy the feeling, but arousing your parrot will lead to it considering you it's mate and result in a bunch of really destructive behaviors you absolutely won't want to deal with. (Bird will become possessive, possibly attack anybody it sees as a love rival, get demanding, puke in your hand/on you to "feed" you, etc.)
Females are particularly aggressive and bitey, so you'll want to be extra cautious.