Help! sudden new rainbow lorikeet

[NumberSeven]

Hello everyone, i've become the sudden new owner of a rainbow lorikeet

I've owned birds before, budgies and cockatiels, but a rainbow is very very new to me. My irresponsible brother brought it home from some market here in australia, it was only 20 dollars. It was passed off as a baby, but the orange beak seems to indicate its an adult. It might be captured from the wild i'm not sure.

Regardless of what it's been through to this point, I do want to care for the poor thing. It seems active and healthy, looking around its cage and playing with the toy i've placed in there.

Can any experienced owners tell me how i should go about taming this bird, how i should keep it healthy, what do i feed it for a balanced, healthy diet, how often should vet checkups be, and basically what to expect from a rainbow?

I'm serious about taking care of it, even if my brother was irresponsible. I'm twenty years old and a student, but i'm only away on two days a week. During that time though i'm away ALL day, dawn until 8pm usually. Do i get a family member to socialise with the bird on those days, or do i do it myself the moment iget home at 8 pm, or do i do it at dawn? (6 am to 7 am)

Just tell me anything you can please, Usually i research the kind of pets i want to get extensively, and this was thrust upon me suddenly so i'm in the dark. (My brother also bought himself two little ducklings, they are pretty cute)

i'll upload a photo of the rainbow shortly and attach it with an edit

EDIT:

[Pajarita]

I don't have any personal experience with any type of lorry, I don't take them in because they require a specialized diet and all my parrots eat basically the same food. But, going by what other people have said about them in birdsites, they are just like any other parrot only messier (their poop is very liquidy and squirts all over, main reason why they are given up).

[NumberSeven]

an update for all of you, hopefully i can get some help from an experienced owner soon but thank you for the post too Pajarita!

So far the poo hasn't been a problem, its been contained within the cage. I'm anxious about cleaning the cage every night, i've left it last night and this morning so far because i don't want to scare the poor thing while its still getting used to its environment, i also don't want to force it out of the cage. Is there any tips for how do i keep the cage clean? i can pull the bottom part out and replace the newspaper and clean everything up down there, and clean the bars manually from the outside the best i can until the rainbow is tamed enough to be taken out of the cage during cleaning.

It seems very friendly and trusting to me, having owned two budgies and a cockatiel before, this lorry is pretty trusting right out of the box. My brother complained it bit him, but i'm incredibly sure that was due to very poor handling. So far i've sat by the cage talking it on a regular basis, talking to it while i go by etc. I've sat near by and placed pieces of apples in the cage bars and its come and eaten them while i was sitting nearby. I tested the limits and held onto a piece through the bars and it after a time of hesitancy came and ate the apple slice, and even nibbled pieces of apple that got onto my fingers through the bars, gently too, i never felt in danger of being bit once.

S/he still gets a bit scared when i stand up from the chair next to the cage and walk away as slowly and non threateningly as i can, probably because i suddenly become much larger and am standing over the cage all of a sudden.

My mother is bringing home some proper nectar and all for real feeding later in the day. I'll make sure its well fed. I'm not happy with the cage size though, its a cage that was too small for a cockatiel (as a result the cockatiel had a lot of outside cage hours supervised to make sure it got its exercise), the lorry is bigger than my cockatiel was even fully grown. This cage i want to place in our garage as a 'sleep cage' once its tame enough to handle it. Just to make sure he gets his 12 hours of sleep without disturbance. The problem with the place i have him now (a living room-ish area) is that he or she wont get the perfect amoutn of sleep because typically there are people watching tv or coming out of their rooms for drinks and things like that. Its a small house, and i want the sleep cage system goin as soon as possible for it.

My goal is to find some treats it likes and start target training to tame it. I've never done target training before, and nor have i ever had to tame a bird really. Every bird i've ever owned as been hand raised, and i'm unsure the circumstances of this bird. At least it seems friendly, which i hear is just something lorry's are by nature.

Anyway, Thats my update, if anyone could give me tips tat would be wonderful. Even on general parrot care, its been a while since i've had a bird

[Pajarita]

LOL - Well, poop is never a problem when they stay in their cages but as they have to come out 4 to 5 hours a day and Lord knows they can poop A LOT in that period of time, that's why their poop is a problem. BTW, you should let that bird out even if it's not tame.

I don't think that lories are that trainable... if what you wanted was a bird to do tricks you should have chosen another species.

[Iggy's here]

Hi,

I had a rainbow lorikeet several years ago. I fond him as a baby unable to fly in the golf course next to me house. at first he was very wild and vicious... but with lot's of work became an awesome buddy. When I first started working with him I would take him into the bathroom (an unfamiliar space with few distractions) and started basic training. It was a slow process...took several months. One thing that he loved was grevillea and hibiscus flowers. Also when I made fresh juice I would give him some.

Good luck!

[namal]

I wish that I could afford the setup that he is coming from! I am not sure about the purpose of the smaller cage as I have no idea of the sizes of the cages you got. you can usually tell if he is afraid of something as he will get as far from it as he can. If it is located high in the back right corner he will try to get as small as he can in the front left of the cage on the bottom and may even be shaking.