HELP! urgent advice 4 lorikeet needed.no pet shop/vet access

[Polpessa]

Hello everyone,

I was recently given a black-cap lorikeet. I'm desperate for some advice for this poor creature.

To say I'm a newbie at keeping birds is an understatement - I've never had a bird before of any type and didn't even know what kind of bird it was until I did some Google image searching.

The bird was taken from the wild by some poachers, passed through several hands and now, it's come to me. I have no idea what the bird's treatment history or age is.

I live on a remote island in West Papua, Indonesia.
I wanted to let it go so it could be free but the bird cannot fend for itself. It can barely fly (don't know if the bird poachers clipped its flight feathers or whether it's just not had enough practice flying due to being confined in overly small cages).
It also has an injured leg and can only stand on one leg.

I've only had it for about 5 days now. So far the only foods it's eaten is banana and papaya and honey. It seems to love these foods.
Today I did some searching online and found suggestions that they shouldn't eat only fruit. So today I tried giving it some fresh cucumber, raw carrot, and raw yellow bell (sweet) pepper. I left the food in the cage for about 5 hours but s/he didn't touch any of it.
I read that they like flowers so I researched which are suitable and found some hibiscus but the lorikeet didn't eat those either.

I'm distraught - I don't want to make it malnourished by feeding it only fruit but I am really worried about the fact that it didn't eat anything today because I only gave it vegetables.

I don't have access to a pet food store; ordering food online is perhaps an option but as I am so remote most packages take 4-6 weeks to arrive. So in the mean time I have to find out what to feed the lorikeet, which is readily available here.

Should I try cooking the carrot? Should I just keep trying to give it fresh cucumber/ raw carrot / bell pepper and not give it any fruit for the moment and hope that it starts eating the veggies if fruit isn't there? I read they like corn but we don't have any fresh corn available...is tinned baby corn or tinned sweet corn an acceptable substitute? I am reluctant to give it tinned veg as I think it usually has quite a lot of salt added.
Some websites have also recommended pumpkin. Again, should it be raw or cooked? Some also mentioned rice and pasta. Unfortunately we have no whole-grain rice or pasta here. I offered it some steamed white rice but it didn't want any.

Access fresh fruit and veg is very limited here; for veg we get pumpkin, green beans, tomatoes, onion, garlic, carrots and that's about it.
For fruit, we get papaya (it LOVES this), bananas (also likes a lot), watermelon. That's it. Actually we are out of bananas at the moment too

What should I do to properly feed this bird, as well as make it happy?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as quickly as possible! Thank you so much. I want to do right by this animal.

[MandyG]

First let me say that I know absolutely nothing about lorikeets or their diet. I don't know what their proper diet consists of, this is just general advice regarding getting parrots to eat vegetables.

There are some good posts on this forum about switching birds to a healthier diet, try reading Successful healthy food transitions.

Also birds tend to prefer different things when it comes to vegetables. Try cooking the vegetables until they are soft (thoroughly make sure they are not hot when you serve them) or you can try steaming them until they soften a little but are still firm. You can also try serving them whole, diced, or chopped. Some birds prefer vegetables to be served different ways. Sometimes cooking them or cutting them up a different way is enough to make a parrot want to try something new!

[pchela]

Lorikeets like nectar. I found this on another site... it might help. Also, you can order pre made nectar mixes online.

A commonly used recipe for a dry lorikeet mix used in Australia by Stan Sindel, a very experienced lorikeet breeder, is made as follows

* 2 cups rice baby cereal
* 2 cups rice flour
* 2 cups egg and biscuit mix
* 1 cup glucose powder
* 1 teaspoon vitamin-mineral powder
* 1 dessertspoon pollen (optional)

Ingredients mixed together dry and stored in air-tight containers preferably in a fridge.

A possible wet nectar mix is as follows:

* 1 litre water
* 1 tablespoons pollen
* 1 tablespoons of honey
* 0.5 litres of high protein baby cereal
* half teaspoon of calcium carbonate
* half teaspoon of multivitamins
* 0.1 litres of powdered skimmed milk

Mix together (it should be a fairly watery mix) and freeze into ice cube trays. give each bird a melted ice cube (about a desert spoon in volume) each day.

Any nectar bearing, fresh flowers are always greatly appreciated

[Polpessa]

Hello and thank you very much for the advice and recipes.

That is a good idea about trying the veggies cooked or in different formats/sizes/shapes.

Unfortunately there is no shop on the island where I can buy the ingredients listed in the recipes. Also, I live in West Papua and the shop where we do get our supplies which are shipped out to the island once every 3-4 weeks isn't like a Western supermarket...have no idea what egg and biscuit mix is. I doubt pollen is available...

Nonetheless I appreciate the recipes!

What would be really helpful is advice on how to give the lorikeet a balanced diet with the simple foods available here:
Available Grains:
-rice, white flour, oat flakes
Available veg:
-carrot, long green beans, pumpkin/squash, onion, garlic, cucumber
Available fruit:
-papaya, sometimes banana, coconut, limes, sometimes watermelon

...this is a very remote and poor area of a 'developing' country...and we don't have any shops here on the island...our supplies are shipped in by cargo boat once every 3-4 weeks.

I would love to give him flowers but the only one I could find on the island listed as safe is hibiscus and the few I could find I already tried giving to him, without success. Don't want to risk poisoning by giving unknown flowers.

Also what about protein? A few sites I saw mentioned giving lorikeets tinned fish or cooked chicken; is this ok to do? What about cooked squid?

Thank you all very much...

[pchela]

Hi,

I found this recipe which might have easier to find ingredients.

http://www.ministryofparrot.com/forum/v ... php?t=3592

[TheNzJessie]

hi there lorikeets are nectar eaters they DO NOT EAT SEED OF ANY KIND. posts before mine have given you some great recipes. if you ahve pet stores around you (it sounds like you wont) but if you do look through there foods you might be able to find a ready made formula that you mix with water.

[Polpessa]

Thanks TheNZJesse for your comment about the seeds.

Unfortunately not only do I not have access to a pet food store, but I don't even have access to a human food store.

Our food is shipped once every 3-4 weeks by cargo boat from the nearest town and as I mentioned above, we only get very simple foods.

I cannot even get the ingredients for the recipes listed above, let alone commercial pre-made mix.

That's why I'm looking for suggestions of how to prepare the simple ingredients (especially veggies) we DO have so that they are appealing to the bird.

Also, don't have much info re: meat - do they need it? I've read a few references to giving lorikeets cooked chicken or fish....do you guys have any input on what your lorikeet likes and in what amounts, how prepared?

Thanks!

[TheNzJessie]

i have never given my lorikeet meat.

[TheNzJessie]

is the bird native to your area?

[Polpessa]

Yes, the bird is native to this general area of Indonesia but not naturally present on the island where I live. The island where I live is too small and hilly to support the type of vegetation the lorikeets need I think. They come from the much larger islands a few hours away from us.