What makes a Rainbow Lorikeet a great pet ?
Rainbow Lorikeets are the “Clowns of the Bird World”. They never seem to know which is the right way up. They love to wrestle with you, swing off your fingers and then snuggle up under your chin for a cuddle. Rainbow Lorikeets love to be scratched around the head and roughed up all over.
Rainbow Lorikeets are a Pocket Rocket with a Huge Personality. Their colours are amazing. They can mimic a large range of sounds and whistles and they can talk quite well in a small gravelly voice
- Clowns of the Bird World
- Love to Wrestle and Play
- Talkers and Great Mimics
- Snuggly and Cuddly
POCKET ROCKETS – Rainbow Lorikeets are the Clowns of the Bird World, they are always rolling around and hanging off you clothes and down the front of your shirt. They are the best wrestlers. They just love to lay in your lap and wrestle with your fingers and toys. Give them a small ball with a bell inside and they will chase the ball all over the house, lie on their back and juggle the ball with their feet. They love to sleep in a little box lined with a towel or newspaper shreds. Often you will find them sleeping on their back with their feet in the air. Rainbow Lorikeets are easily trainable and extremely entertaining.
SUITABILITY – Rainbow Lorikeets are fantastic birds for the teenager and the young at heart. The Rainbow Lorikeet typically suit an older child who wants a bird with a great interactive personality without being a large bird. The Rainbow Lorikeet is also a great bird for the adult who wants a bird that they can train, talk to, wrestle with and basically has an explosive personality in a small feathered body. Rainbow Lorikeets also love to snuggle with you and be scratched all over their body. They are soooo soft and silky and without feather dust. They are great for people who may have allergies to birds.
Personality and BEHAVIOUR
The Hand Raised Rainbow Lorikeet of both sexes make equally excellent companion parrots. Both sexes are amazing fun and super cuddly, they can even talk is a small gravelly voice and mimic a large range of sounds, from whistling to tunes and of course the telephone.
Lorikeets in general love to play and chase small objects and are easy to train. Lorikeets are boundless bundles of excitement and fun.
At Emerald Aviaries we hand raise each baby lorikeet from 3 weeks of age. This way the baby has acquired the parents good antibodies and we can hand raise the baby bird to be a wonderful and healthy companion parrot for you.
Lorikeets are the Clowns of the Bird World. They love to hang upside down from chains, swing from your fingers, chase small balls, crawl inside boxes and snuggle into your chest and be loved.
Rainbow Lorikeets love nothing better than to be scratched around the head and behind their ears… YES birds do have ears. They are small holes in their head just behind their eyes. They also like to wrestle and play rough at times. You can rub them all over and mess their feathers up and they will bounce back for more.
Have a large shallow dist of water in the cage as they will love to bath and splash around. They will also shower with you if your like.
Some of the best toys for a rainbow lorikeet are chains for them to swing on, cardboard boxes for them to crawl in to and chew, woven cane baskets from Op shops are always cheap and lots of fun. Small balls with bells in them so that they can chase them around the floor.
Rainbow lorikeets also like to sleep in a box. Just hand a cardboard box up high in the cage. You can put some scrunched up paper in there for bedding if you want.
As with all birds you need to establish a routine early on that the bird can count on. Let your bird out at around the same time each day and they will look forward to their special time with you and occupy themselves the rest of the day.
Sometimes your rainbow lorikeet may become a little “nippy”, dont be put off. Usually the lorikeet is letting you know that he doesnt like something that you are doing. It is best to observe your lorikeet and see what he is objecting to and modify your play. Do something else that your lorikeet enjoys.
Make sure your rainbow lorikeet is challenged with some “work”. When he comes out of the cage go through a routine such as step up commands, shake hands, swing upside down, etc. If you do this on a routine basis he will soon stop being nippy as he has other things to think of.
Rainbow Lorikeets are receommended for people who have :hard floors” as their poops are a bit messy. you need to be able to wipe them up easily.
Rainbows love to bathe in water and slash around. They love to shower under a soft running tap, or hop in the shower with you. Watch out for their sharp little claws on your bare skin though.. ouch.
Keep an eye on them if they are out when you are washing up as they may just plunge into the soapy bubbles not realising that there is water underneath. They soon find out that they cant “walk on bubbles”
DIETRY REQUIREMENTS
Rainbow Lorikeets do not eat seed as a part of their healthy diet. A healthy diet for a Lorikeet is made up of fruit, vegetables and native flowers and nectar. There are also various commercial lorikeet wet and dry mixes that are also beneficial for your lorikeet. These commercial power mixes are to be fed in conjunction with the fruit and vegetables,….. not as a substitute for fresh fruit and vegetables.
The photographs below show some of the food mixture that we provide on a daily basis to our own lorikeets. The first bowl is a daily fruit and vegetable salad type mix, with the addition of some grain bread, drizzled with honey. The lorikeets always go for this first. You can use all types of seasonal fruit and they love passionfruit when it is available.
The second bowl shows the dry lorikeet commercial powder that is fed in conjunction with the fresh fruit and vegetables. Place the powder next to the lorikeets powder dish and the lorikeet will take a nip of powder then dip its beak into the water to wash it down.
The third photograph shows two baby hand raised lorikeets prior to weaning slurping up a wet mix made from the dry powder by them selves. To make a wet mix for babies simply mix a spoonful of lorikeet mix in some boiling water to make a slurry the consistency of thick cream and let cool.
Always make sure that your lorikeet has access to fresh plant material daily. They love any Australian flowers and it no flowers are available use the young green branches.
Rainbow Lorikeets are usually known as the more assertive and aggressive species of wild birds when it comes to food and establishing territory
Here at Emerald Aviaries we also keep chickens. In this case our lovely black hen was having a treat on our deck and a wild rainbow flew in and attempted to take the treat from her.
Watch how our Black Hen responds to the intruder.