Please help NEW LORIKEET OWNER

[LorikeetNovice]

Hello. My 14 yo son and I brought our first Lorikeet home yesterday afternoon.

It seemed to be going well but I must say that both my son and I are struck with anxiety about the bird's well being. I think it is because we don't know how to read our bird's body language yet and also, we're not confident of anything really.

I have a few questions:

Cage & perches

We set up the cage which is about 66cm wide x 95cm tall x 55cm deep with three perches. And the new Lorikeet was climbing all over the place but has fallen down to bottom of cage a couple of times which terrifies us. He got right back up but I fetched some native gum tree branches to give him some more things to climb around on. The pet shop guy said he wasn't used to climbing because they keep their birds in perspex units not cages or on display so he needs to learn how to climb. His wings are clipped but he's not that flash at flying either (12 weeks old approx.). BTW, we don't know the gender - I am using "he" for convenience.

The cage now has four perches in there roughly even spaced and tried to off-set them. I find it hard to arrange them. One is a thick (commercially made to be bird friendly) "rope", the other is a wooden dowel, the third is only half length across the cage but thick and has a rough surface and the last is the gum tree branch. But we are struggling to secure the branch - it is thicker than the space between the bars and we have chiselled out the ends but it is still prone to slipping which could be dangerous - any tips?

Sore claw?
I've noticed today too that the bird is pulling up one leg (mostly the left) and resting with weight on the other leg. Is this normal behaviour or does it mean one leg is sore? I worry he hurt it when he fell. When I had him out of the cage, he seemed to be using both legs but he is less grippy on the left claw - the right one grips around the perch or finger - the left claws are less clutched. He also seems a bit hesistant to jump from perch to water bowl. He stretches his wings out quite alot too; sometimes standing on one leg when he does that.

Grooming
I've heard of birds preening themselves - he does fluff himself up and seem to chew or nibble at himself. He's not pulling feathers out but he does it alot so again I am wondering if this is normal or a sign of something like mites? I believe he was getting mite prevention spray at the pet store and I can't see any evidence of them.

Vet visit - stress?

I contacted an Avian vet as the pet store said to take him to an avian vet within 72 hours of purchase for a check up. I made a tentative appointment on Monday (it is the weekend now and it is hard to get appointments at the best of times) but there aren't many Avian vets in Sydney so it will be about a 40 min drive each way and I am concerned about the stress of the trip after such a recent stress of coming home from shop in the car and then settling into a new cage and greater environment[​IMG]. What do you think?

Not into water bath?

He also doesn't seem that interested in his water bath - I thought lorikeets loved to bath so we got him a large dish to bath in but he hasn't shown any interest at all in hopping in. Is that weird or am I expecting too much too soon?

I gave him a cardboard toilet roll holder and bell but he wasn't that into them. He's quite verbal and is happy to come out of the cage and sit on our arms / hands / shirt and doesn't appear to be fearful of or upset by the dog (who has been very disinterested so far - just lies down near cage and rests but we are supervising them all the time).

We are worried!

I think I need a "chill pill" to relax into this! But my son is similar - just really concerned that the bird is okay. My experience with rescuing injured or sick wild birds (handing them to local vet or wildlife rescue person) has me worried about birds just dropping dead.

Thanks for hearing me! I appreciate any comments you have to help. I will try to post some pictures of the behaviours I am observing when I figure out how.

Kim

[Chantilly]

I really dont know much about lories either, but I will try and help out if I can.
Mine is VERY clumsy and in general they seem to be goofballs, but to soften the fall you can fold up a towel on the bottom of the floor (I know it will get messy and probably not allot of fun to clean, but if he is falling heavy you want to sodten the falls) Mine also is very weak at flying, she has only just gotten her feathers through, but she definately dont have strong wing muscles yet.
The rope perches are very 'foot friendly', the cement ones are an easy grip, and as for the wooden branch, I would try to buy one from the shop so you can easily connect itnto the cage
Mine does hold up her foot allot and stretch her wings often too, and non stop preens (parrots are very obsessive over being clean, she is probably just paranoid) I think this is normal and standing on one foot is probably comfortanle for them!
Mine loves to bath.. Are you in Aus, if you are not mabye the humidity is high enough where you live, and he dosnt feel the need.
I dont doubt that yiur lorikeet is probably a little stressed! Imagine coming from a boring little box into an nice cage with toys and a loving family, it is a big change!

[LorikeetNovice]

Thanks Chantily for reaching out to me. I am in NW Sydney. It is humid at the moment.

Another more experienced bird enthusiast I met through another forum told me the babies don't always take to swimming at a young age - develops later.

I have put the towel in to cushion any further falls. Yes, messy but I can wash towels. It's no biggie as long as it is okay - I don't want him/her chewing and swallowing any fibres.

It's hard to watch them struggling to climb. I can see his confidence is a bit lacking now that the foot is sore and he's had two long drop falls.

Yes, I'm sure the birdie is stressed. We both are but hopefully he will be okay. I know I will survive this and hope I will look back and laugh. However I feel annoyed with the pet shop that they don't put their little ones in small low cages from a young age to help them learn to climb etc. Mind you some of these goof balls in the shop wrestled and fell to the floor without any bad outcome.

Thanks again for the connect, please keep in touch and best wishes to you and your very youngling.

Kim

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum! I don't have any lories, I never wanted one because of their difficult diet (it's bad enough with the ones I have which are the 'easy' ones ) but you did good in getting the appointment at the avian vet.

Now, baby birds do get stressed out when moved to a new home. Parrots are not 'explorers', the stay their whole lives surrounded by their extended family and in the same territory they are born so going to a new home with strange people is very stressful to them.

The towel is a good idea. Keep the cage so the perches are at your eye level when you are standing up (people looming over them is stressful to a prey animal that lives in trees). Put the cage against a wall or, if you can, a corner (this makes them feel safe because they instinctively know that the solid walls will prevent predators from reaching them -don't forget that the flock is their protection against predators and that he doesn't have one, he is all alone). If you cannot put it against a wall, drape a large piece of material on the back with a little of it on both sides and top so he has a little 'protected' spot for him to perch. Make sure he is warm (stressed out birds need high temperatures -and I am talking 85 F/around 30 C). And put soft food in his cage -at least two kinds so use the wet formula and two kinds of pureed fruit (you can use baby food jars for this) and change it twice a day.

Aside from that, leave him mostly alone. I mean, you can walk around and such but don't approach the cage too close and stare at him (that's what predators do).

[Chantilly]

Thanks Chantily for reaching out to me. I am in NW Sydney. It is humid at the moment.

Another more experienced bird enthusiast I met through another forum told me the babies don't always take to swimming at a young age - develops later.

I have put the towel in to cushion any further falls. Yes, messy but I can wash towels. It's no biggie as long as it is okay - I don't want him/her chewing and swallowing any fibres.

It's hard to watch them struggling to climb. I can see his confidence is a bit lacking now that the foot is sore and he's had two long drop falls.

Yes, I'm sure the birdie is stressed. We both are but hopefully he will be okay. I know I will survive this and hope I will look back and laugh. However I feel annoyed with the pet shop that they don't put their little ones in small low cages from a young age to help them learn to climb etc. Mind you some of these goof balls in the shop wrestled and fell to the floor without any bad outcome.

Thanks again for the connect, please keep in touch and best wishes to you and your very youngling.

Kim
kimtonnet@gmail.com

You are welcome and Thankyou! It is great to get to meet others with lorikeets, it seems that very little is known about them! They are certainly cute though!

[LorikeetNovice]

Thanks Parjarita, all of your advice is much appreciated.

His cage is in a corner.

He's had a pretty good day today - but I had to lower all of the perches and put them closer together because of his sore foot - so he could climb around to reach food and water more easily without high risk of fall. So they are lower than is ideal but it is a balance. But it is warm here - not sure where you are but ambient temperature in Sydney in Jan/Feb is 25-35 Celcius or hotter - I am more concerned about heat stress on a very hot day.

He's been hand-raised and handled by alot of people in the pet shop so he seems quite at ease with us. In fact he actively comes to front of cage and calls out in hope that he can come out of cage with us.

I am just taking cues from him at this stage but taking it slowly.

Thanks again for your help.

Kim

[Wolf]

Aright, the first thing is that I do not have any lorikeets but the things that I will be speaking about are not species specific, but actually apply to most parrots including lorikeets.

The cage is barely large enough as the full wingspan of the rainbow lorikeet is almost as long as your cage is deep., with almost no room to spare, so it is actually the bare minimum size for this bird. I would try to replace it with a larger one when you can afford to do so.

I can't say whether your bird has a sore foot or not as I can't see how he is holding it or more importantly how he acts while using it. But most parrots tend to stand on one foot when they are relaxed and feel safe enough to do so. That means that this could easily just be his normal behavior while relaxing. The stretching of his wings while standing on one foot is also a normal relaxed behavior in most parrots.

Back to the cage for a moment, I can't see the perches so I don't know what to say about the perch that you described as rough, but it could be a cement perch which I would not use. You should be able to go to a hardware store and get a package of wing nuts, a package of washers and a package of hanger bolts. You would cut the branch to the length of the cage, drill a hole in the end and screw the rougher end of the hanger bolt into the hole that you drilled and then use one washer on the inside of the cage and one on the outside of the cage on the other end of the hanger bolt and secure with the wing nut. I am just guessing but I think that you would probably want a number 10 hanger bolt, and use one on each end of the perch.

So far everything that you have mentioned appear to be well within the normal range of their behaviors. But if this bird is asking to come out to be with you and does this on its own, then I would not discourage this, I would allow him to come out and spend time with and on you. One last thing, no matter how relaxed your dog is around your bird, never trust in this. A bird is a natural part of a dogs diet. your bird may actually be quite safe around your dog, but never trust in that as there is a possibility that there could be a mishap and that would not end well for your bird.

[LorikeetNovice]

Thanks Wolf! Good info.

He definitely has a sore foot - yesterday morning he was tentative when stepping around and seemed to have trouble moving around at times. Also when He was perched on my finger the left claw was less grippy than the right. He was still moving though and happy in himself. But I took him to the Avian Vet today and he agreed that he was slightly weaker in the left foot than right but had not broken bones or inflammation. Also checked his droppings for signs of kidney infection but they seemed okay. So at this stage it is wait and see but I feel it is improving a bit already.

Yes, agree on cage size and the intent is to get him a larger cage soon. We bought this one 2nd-hand and it was immediately available and already assembled so we felt that it was a reasonable short term option especially since he is still a baby and struggling to climb around the cage as it is. He is still learning so much. I would certainly appreciate your advice on what cage dimension would be good because I want the best for him/her and I will find the funds to get him the right cage. Might just be a matter of going without something else for a while.

So I am attaching a picture of how of the cage from the side which shows some of the perches. The pink one is the one which claims to be abrasive (on claws). Note the towel at the bottom which was to cushion any falls has been replaced with a smooth fabric as was worried claws might get caught.

And yes, the dog is always supervised when in same area as the bird. Not taking anything for granted.

Thanks again for your help.

Kim

[Wolf]

Still can't really see much about the pink perch, but it looks more like a calcium perch than a cement one. This is what I use for trimming their nails http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=15079

Another thing you could do about using natural branches for perches is to save the ends of the rope perches, the plastic part and remove the rope, they are just hot glued on, and stick the ends of the branch in them and mount in your cage.

I have to leave for a doctors appointment will check back later on

[Pajarita]

Hmmm, did the doctor give any possible reason for his favoring that leg except that it seemed weaker than the other one? Did anybody looked at the bottom of this foot to see if there was any discolored spot on it? Because if it's the leg, there has to be a physical reason for it (neurological? trauma? bone or muscle?) and, if it's that the bottom of his foot is a bit sore, then you should not use anything rough for him to perch on... some people use vet wrap and cover the perches with it but I like to use paper towel (seems softer to the touch to me than vet wrap).