Rainbow Lorikeets and prawns, and nostrils

Hello all,

This is my first visit.

I just joined up because I had some questions about the behaviour of my new Rainbow Lorikeet - Lucifer.

He is 10 months old, I have had him for three weeks. He adopted me when I went into a pet store, he jumped onto my head and wouldn't leave me alone.

He had been abused by another lorikeet that lived there and has a bald spot on his head where the other lorikeet pulled out his feathers. He was quite bitey when we first brought him home.

Since I have had him, he has slowly gotten less bitey and has been exceptionally inquisitive and is beginning to learn very swiftly.

Just a couple of things... he has two things that he seems to be addicted to:

- prawns
- trying to extract nectar from my nostrils

He stole a prawn off me the other day and wouldn't let me get it back off him, running off to his cage to begin to shred it hungrily, until he had eaten it all.

His cage has fresh native nectar bearing flowers and powdered nectar, so the food isn't a problem - he loves that as well.

He also forces his beak up my nose and attempts to extract "nectar" from it with his furry little tongue, really giving it a red hot crack (photo attached)

I quite like the feeling (it is a little ticklish, but otherwise rather pleasant) and don't mind.

My questions are:

- Is it ok to give him prawns as a treat from time?
- Is it ok to allow him to clean my nose?

Will either of the above things hurt him?

Thanks,

Judas

Haha, that is so adorable, god I love Lori's

I have no idea about the answer to those... prawns? Not sure if that's a yes/no food as I've never considered it and Lori's diets are much different to most parrots anyways.

I'd probably say a no to the nose cleaning however as you've got a ton of bacteria up there and I can't imagine it's all that good for Lucifer to ingest/exposed to that.

agree with the above nose thing, plus if guests come to visit, it'll freak them out!!! as for prawns lol nut likes them, but as they are so high in protien, she gets one in a blue moon, not regular!

your nosrils are an natural breeding grounds for staph(however you spell it coccus) should the bird be a carrier, an one day bites you, you'll be litterally gettin an injection of staph, into your blood stream not good, plus its a well known food poisening bacteria that causes you to throw up within 2 hours of ingesting

other then that welcome an awww really cute bird

My lorikeet used to try and pick/lick my nose and my ear, lol. I used to push him away because I thought it was gross, he was obsessed with it tho. He used to try and lick the corner of my eyes and my lips too, he was a gross little bugger. He lived for about 10 years tho I really don't think there's anything wrong with it, honestly... but I guess a vet or something could tell you otherwise.

How gross are their tounges? All spongey and weird. lol. It used to freak my mum out.