Time to start Weaning my Lorikeet?!?

[Rebecca19]

Hi there,

I have a baby rainbow lorikeet of 6 weeks. I got her when she was 5 weeks old and was feeding her 3 times a day, about every 6-8 hours...
It is now week 2 of having her and she is starting to play up at feed time. Her morning feed, she is fine. But her lunchtime and night feed she will have a few nibbles but then is only interesting on running around and jumping onto me!

Is it time to cut out her lunchtime feed and only feed her morning and night?
Any information you have to offer, will be appreciated

Thanks x

[Eric&Rebecca]

Was the lorikeet bought unweaned?

It's not advisable to buy unweaned birds for this exact reason. Normally any parrot will learn either from the parent birds how to pick up seeds or by the breeder (if hand reared). We have one parent raised and one hand reared.

We got our cockatiel early one, however he was fully weaned but was unsure of how to drink. We topped him up with eggfood once per day just for moisture on advice of the vet.

In my limited knowledge, witholding formula isn't usually the best way to wean. My breeder puts the babies in the cage with seeds and veggies sprinkled around and eventually they start picking them up by themselves. She continues to feed them eggfood and then eventually they stop wanting it. Once George started drinking he stopped wanting the eggfood because he was getting everything he needed. The same will probably go for the lorikeet diet (which I am aware is different from parakeets).

I would take advice from an avian vet or breeder.

[Gabriel]

I have no experience in this field, though there are a few things that may be of some help.

First of all, I have heard that lorikeets usually wean at the age of 10 -12 weeks, depending on the caretaker.

Also, I would continue with 2-3 feeds a day, gradually reducing the amount of times a day you feed her/him the formula and swapping to a lorikeet mix diet until he/she refuses the formula.

Finally, some good lorikeet food brands include Passwells, Wombaroo or Aristopet. The food comes in wet or dry mixes, though I would advise you use the dry mix as wet mix tends to spoil during the day.

This is all the advice I can give, hopefully this advice will come in useful