Your Go-to Lorikeet Information Sheet

It’s a very exciting time adding a new lorikeet to the family, at Pet.co.nz we want to make sure that we help you successfully introduce your new lorikeet to your home and make the experience as stress free as possible.

Before the big day, ideally before the lorikeet arrives, you want to set things up as they will be, so that they don’t come home to an environment that then changes again once they have started to settle in. Here is what we suggest to help make sure that your lorikeet settles in.

New Lorikeet Checklist

• Correctly sized bird cage or aviary
• Bird cage cover
• Lorikeet food
• Cuttlefish
• Lorikeet treats
• Nectar
• Bird cage tidy (to catch any food and excrement that falls from the cage)
• Bird perches
• Bird toys
• Bird bath
• Water dishes
• Mineral block
• Grit (used to help your bird break down and digest food)

Lorikeets make great pets, they have amazing colours are gentle and mellow and intelligent birds who like to copy repetitive sounds and noises around them. Lorikeet’s are happiest when they are housed as a group, with at least three birds together and more if possible

Feeding Your Lorikeet

Your lorikeet’s diet should consist of wet and dry lorikeet mixes, these feeds should make up approximately 65% of your lorikeet’s diet. Finely chopped fresh fruit, vegetables should make up the other 25% of your lorikeet’s diet and the remaining 10% can be made up with treats. Lorikeets are nectar eaters, and have a specially designed digestion system so feeding a soft food is best.

Fresh food and water should always be available, if fruit and vegetables are not eaten within the day they should be removed and replaced with fresh fruit and vegetables the next day.

Your lorikeet will also need a mineral block and cuttlefish, both of these provide the lorikeet with all the calcium and other essential nutrients they need to stay healthy.

Housing Your Lorikeet

The most important part of housing a lorikeet is ensuring that you get the right sized bird cage, a good sized cage will be at least 60cm60cm80cm for one lorikeet. The gap between the wires should be no more than 1.2cm wide, any wider and your lorikeet may be able to escape or get its head caught between the wires.

Inside the cage you will need a variety of bird perches, with different textures, shapes and sizes to help to recreate the outdoor environment for the bird, so that the lorikeet can stretch out its feet and also keep its claws trimmed on the different sizes and textures. When choosing to position your cage, ensure that the cage is not in any drafts, direct sunlight for endless hours of the day and in a reasonably social part of the house, your lorikeet will want to feel that they are part of the family. And finally make sure that the lorikeet is kept out of the way of any cats and dogs.

Maintaining Your Bird Cage

It’s important to clean the bird cage and bird perches regularly, this enables you to change the bird cage around, by moving the perches and also changing out the bird toys helps to reduce boredom as the cage keeps changing.

As Lorikeets are nectar eaters they will have runny stools and can be messy. This means a cage tidy and regular maintenance is important.

Ensure the bird water and food bowls are changed and cleaned daily and located in a part of the cage where, poo and feathers are not likely to fall into them.

Make sure that you don’t use a lot of cleaning type chemicals around your lorikeet, and don’t spray fly spray around them.

Lorikeet's Health and Wellbeing

By spending time with your lorikeet on a daily basis you will notice any changes. Basically a healthy lorikeet eats regularly, stands on both feet, its feathers look nice (unless moulting at the time), they are clean around the vent (bottom) and a clean and free from stains and any sort of build up around the nostrils and eyes.

So if you notice any of these things change, then it is time to get some advice from your local vet.

A lot of things can be toxic to birds like aerosols, cleaning products, and some indoor plants so make sure that you bird proof your home before letting the lorikeet fly around.

The other major factor to protect your lorikeet, is that while they are getting used to the layout of your house, make sure that you cover the windows and any big mirrors as the birds can’t see glass, pulling the curtains or blinds works for the windows, either tie a ribbon over the large mirrors or put paper onto the glass to show the bird that it is there.