New baby dusky lorikeet

Hi,
just got a new 2 month old dusky lori.
It is normal for it to cry out all day? Am feeding it with a syring (some food given by the pet shop, probab;y baby food). Strange thing is, whenever it makes a sound, its chest seems to 'crack' as if its opening some bone to be able to make the sound. Also, how should i give it water?

I think your babies hungry . Even if "they say their weaned" They can regress when you bring them home. I would restart the handfeeding schedule. while offering in his cage Lory food and a bowl of water . Do this as long as it takes . He should start to refuse the formula when hes eating enough of his food . Also can offer juicy fruits and vegs.Remember they always need that lorry food they cant survive without it.

personally, i think the baby needs to be returned to the petstore, just until it is fully eating on its own. it sounds like you bought an unweaned baby, and the baby isnt eating on its own properly and is crying out because it is hungry. if you dont know how to properly handfeed, a baby bird can aspirate, get crop burn, slow crop, yeast infections, punctured crops, etc. its very dangerous to handfeed, which is why it should be left to experienced breeders.


once the baby is eating on its own, then bring him home again. just ask the petstore to finish handfeeding him for you

Our rainbow is feed lori dry mix and a weak honey solution. The latter is apparently not recommended, however, we found that neither of our (then) two loris liked the wet mixes available, they are expensive, and "go off" quickly in Australian heat. The dry mixes aren't especially cheap either, and have to be discarded often, but some of our other birds like to have a nibble of it occasionally too. With the weak honey mix available our rainbow lori rarely drinks water unless it's quite hot. The honey mix is usually lapped up in a day, sometimes it has to be refreshed as loris are terrible for cage hygiene (in other words, they'll squirt in their food). He also gets greens and fruit (mostly apple).

Our lori will also lick powdered Foundation pellets in water (i.e. a paste) squeezed from a syringe. Most of our birds do this, and some of our older birds are finishing off unused Neocare being fed to our current brood of baby cockatiels.

Hi, Thanks for the reply's.
Actually, he seems to be doing quite well.
Yes he does constantly want food (still giving him the baby food twice a day with a dropper now).
i also went out and bout the vesele laga lori food, which is basically a powder that is to be mixed with water. So, once his crop becomes smaller, i shall give it to him.
Also, he is eating apple. I microwave the apple piece for about 5 seconds so its not too cold. He eats it all by himself (while crying away ).
He is still being weaned. I was told to hand feed him for 10 more days.

Also, it it normal for a bird to cry while it is being fed?
DallyTsuka, what do you mean by aspirate? i cant return it now, so is there something i should be careful about? I think im feeding him right. I put the tip of the dropper a little inside the bowl of liquid so when he tries to get it, he ends up self feeding.

Mike17, "Our rainbow is feed lori dry mix and a weak honey solution". What about versele laga (strange name) lori food.


Guys, you have successfully freaked me out. Please help!

raahil.kulshreshtha said:

Hi, Thanks for the reply's.
Actually, he seems to be doing quite well.
Yes he does constantly want food (still giving him the baby food twice a day with a dropper now).
i also went out and bout the vesele laga lori food, which is basically a powder that is to be mixed with water. So, once his crop becomes smaller, i shall give it to him.
Also, he is eating apple. I microwave the apple piece for about 5 seconds so its not too cold. He eats it all by himself (while crying away ).
He is still being weaned. I was told to hand feed him for 10 more days.

Also, it it normal for a bird to cry while it is being fed?
DallyTsuka, what do you mean by aspirate? i cant return it now, so is there something i should be careful about? I think im feeding him right. I put the tip of the dropper a little inside the bowl of liquid so when he tries to get it, he ends up self feeding.

Mike17, "Our rainbow is feed lori dry mix and a weak honey solution". What about versele laga (strange name) lori food.


Guys, you have successfully freaked me out. Please help!

Click to expand...

Raahil, I'm in Australia, I assume the food you mentioned is a local one. Sri Lanka? India? There are many foods on the market, most involve rice powder and other stuff, our guy gets dry mix plus weak honey water separately.
I can't say too much about the constant crying, even when eating. Sounds weird. Our rainbow was already weaned when we got him. As long as it's eating, that's good, and soon enough it should be able to eat on its own.

Hand raising can be scary, but you're not feeding direct into crop, just make sure any food isn't too hot, even from a dropper as tongue could get burned, and tongue is very important to a lori! Better too cool than too warm, including the apple. Good luck, you're getting there.

Hi Mike,
this is the food, seems to be european
Versele-Laga Premium Petfood

The only thing that is scaring me the overfeeding bit. Between the apple, baby food and the versele laga, im probably giving it say 60ml a day.
For example, today, i fed it baby food in the morning (about 20ml) then gave it an apple the size of half a finger, and i left the nectar in the cage (i think it drank maybe 20 sips). Its crop atm is pretty big (the biggest iv seen until iv gotten it). ts not visibly scary like in this: Google Image Result for http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/imgs/ibsourcrp.jpg

if you arent feeding him directly by the syringe, then it should avoid aspiration.

aspiration is when food/fluid gets into the lungs instead of the stomach. it can cause sudden death, or it can cause pneumonia.

ideal temperature of formula should be 104-106 F to prevent problems. do not microwave formula, heat it up by putting it into a glass cup and put the glass cup into boiling water to heat it evenly until it reaches that temperature. you dont want it too cold, because it can cause slow crop, which can cause sour crop. you dont want it too hot, because you can cause crop burn.


handfeeding is scary. since the petstore unfortunately isnt going to take him back temporarily, do you have any breeders or even the petstore to show you how to do it properly?

also, can you post photos? it would be good for us to be able to help you, so we can help make sure you raise this baby good and healthy.


it will be very important to make sure his weight is healthy. you should check the keelbone. these collages should be able to help you:

this shows what an underweight bird looks like




this shows normal weight:





and overweight:





knowing if your baby is a good weight is important to know if he is getting enough to eat as well. if he is losing weight, he might not be eating enough, or if he seems to be eating, but is skinny, there could be something wrong. knowing what to look for with weights in birds is very important because it can tell you if something is wrong sooner.

i dont know how much lori babies need to eat, so i cant help you there. i was just concerned about this sounding like an unweaned baby. but dont worry, this forum will be glad to help you and there's many experienced breeders here who should be able to give you good advice.

raahil.kulshreshtha said:

Hi Mike,
this is the food, seems to be european
Versele-Laga Premium Petfood

The only thing that is scaring me the overfeeding bit. Between the apple, baby food and the versele laga, im probably giving it say 60ml a day.
For example, today, i fed it baby food in the morning (about 20ml) then gave it an apple the size of half a finger, and i left the nectar in the cage (i think it drank maybe 20 sips). Its crop atm is pretty big (the biggest iv seen until iv gotten it). ts not visibly scary like in this: Google Image Result for http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/imgs/ibsourcrp.jpg

Click to expand...

Since you're not "force-feeding" but feeding with a syringe or spoon, it would seem to be difficult to overfeed it, Raahil. It would seem you have a reputable product although I'm not familiar with it. We get local Oz and some North American product here, mostly (the latter very expensive).

@DallyTsuka - Wow.. very detailed response. I found myself check all my birds for the same. They all seem to be fine except for my fat sun conure. Will post a photo as soon as both "bee" and i wake up in the morning. Thanks!
@Mike17 - He seems to be eating on his own actually. I just hold the bowl up for him. I would however like to do a few more days of dropper feeding (indirectly). Correct me if im wrong, my human brain tells me that it will help the bond we build. BTW, the bird is quite oldish. Baby feeding apart, he tries to fly all the time, goes all round his cage (top to bottom), perches on his stick...etc... BUTTT... he's a little cry baby...Having a vet come over tomorrow to check him... will keep u posted.


Thanks Guys

Hi again,
So this morning, i heard two sneezes from him and frantically opened the cover of the cage. He seems perfectly fine. Playing around and stuff. But when i went to feed him, he seems like he REALLY wants food, but doesnt eat for more than 1 minute.

Iv put a bulb next to his cage.

What do you guys think? (He is self feeding now, i am only controlling how much he eats)

Also, he is not crying as much as he did yesterday

Ok, he is lying in one spot and crying now. He finally ate food and has become lethargic since.