Hi everyone,
We just took on two Rainbow Lorikeets from some people who weren't looking after them. We, unfortunately, didn't know what we were getting ourselves into!
We have worked with a lot of animals over the years, however these two are really hard to figure out...
Initially we had them in a small cage that the previous owners gave us. I knew straight away that this cage was too small, however I wanted to have them in the house so I could let them fly around inside when we were home and while I worked in my office. At first they were very skittish around hands, with the small one biting when he got scared. After about two weeks in the small cage (leaving it open all day with them not going near the door or being able to get them near my hands without biting me) we decided that it was too cruel to leave them in there and moved them into their original enclosure (a larger aviary around 220cm long x 90cm wide and 200cm high), located outside.
They seemed happy in there, however as they have come to know us the big female (we think) started to dance and chatter to herself and then jump on my hand and rub her cloaca on me. She would then attack my hand randomly, which we thought may be from frustration coming from the fact that she can't mate with my hand :/ I have stopped her doing this, however, if I try and train her to go near my hand she either doesn't dances next to it and chatters or flies unexpectedly onto it and rips it to shreds!! So much so that I had to literally throw her off today as there was no other way to break her bite. My whole hand was bleeding and I have about 8 bite marks on the top of my hand from her being on there for all of 4 seconds.
The little one (we think is male) is a total jerk and ALWAYS tries to attack myself, my partner or anyone else who goes into the cage, even when there is food. We have to distract him just to feed him. Talking to him from outside is not as bad, however if I talk to, engage with or pat the head of (she lets me do this) the female he starts aggressively biting her legs, feet and/or neck
The big one escaped over Xmas while our friends were looking after her. We got her back luckily, however now she is cheekier than ever and tried to get past me today again. Preferably, I would like them to be wild, however, I know that domestic lorries don't fare well in the wild. We have a lot of wild lorikeets on our property so we would like to think that they would join a flock and integrate, however when she escaped she was gone for three days and when we found her (on a property 1km away) she was very very hungry and alone.
I'm upgrading an old open structure on our property for them (which is 300cm wide by 350cm long and 300cm high) so this will give them a huge amount of room to move around and hopefully they will be happier. But this does still leave us questioning what to do about their horrible behaviour. I clean their cage once a week and I have to cover myself head to toe and keep them at bay because they try and one-up me and either bite, or get really close to the door, which makes me worry that they will try and escape again.
So...back to square one. Our dream would be to have nice, hand-tamed birds that we can let roam around the house and office and carry back to their aviary when we are going out. The reality is that we have two sweet (when outside of the cage or talking to them) birds, who, as soon as hands or body parts are involved, turn into little maniacs (outside of the big female letting me pat her head sometimes when she is doing her weird dance and chatter).
Where to from here? I'm not even sure how to get them from the small aviary to the new larger one as they will kick up a huge stink and it will be a very stressful experience for them. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
We just took on two Rainbow Lorikeets from some people who weren't looking after them. We, unfortunately, didn't know what we were getting ourselves into!
We have worked with a lot of animals over the years, however these two are really hard to figure out...
Initially we had them in a small cage that the previous owners gave us. I knew straight away that this cage was too small, however I wanted to have them in the house so I could let them fly around inside when we were home and while I worked in my office. At first they were very skittish around hands, with the small one biting when he got scared. After about two weeks in the small cage (leaving it open all day with them not going near the door or being able to get them near my hands without biting me) we decided that it was too cruel to leave them in there and moved them into their original enclosure (a larger aviary around 220cm long x 90cm wide and 200cm high), located outside.
They seemed happy in there, however as they have come to know us the big female (we think) started to dance and chatter to herself and then jump on my hand and rub her cloaca on me. She would then attack my hand randomly, which we thought may be from frustration coming from the fact that she can't mate with my hand :/ I have stopped her doing this, however, if I try and train her to go near my hand she either doesn't dances next to it and chatters or flies unexpectedly onto it and rips it to shreds!! So much so that I had to literally throw her off today as there was no other way to break her bite. My whole hand was bleeding and I have about 8 bite marks on the top of my hand from her being on there for all of 4 seconds.
The little one (we think is male) is a total jerk and ALWAYS tries to attack myself, my partner or anyone else who goes into the cage, even when there is food. We have to distract him just to feed him. Talking to him from outside is not as bad, however if I talk to, engage with or pat the head of (she lets me do this) the female he starts aggressively biting her legs, feet and/or neck
The big one escaped over Xmas while our friends were looking after her. We got her back luckily, however now she is cheekier than ever and tried to get past me today again. Preferably, I would like them to be wild, however, I know that domestic lorries don't fare well in the wild. We have a lot of wild lorikeets on our property so we would like to think that they would join a flock and integrate, however when she escaped she was gone for three days and when we found her (on a property 1km away) she was very very hungry and alone.
I'm upgrading an old open structure on our property for them (which is 300cm wide by 350cm long and 300cm high) so this will give them a huge amount of room to move around and hopefully they will be happier. But this does still leave us questioning what to do about their horrible behaviour. I clean their cage once a week and I have to cover myself head to toe and keep them at bay because they try and one-up me and either bite, or get really close to the door, which makes me worry that they will try and escape again.
So...back to square one. Our dream would be to have nice, hand-tamed birds that we can let roam around the house and office and carry back to their aviary when we are going out. The reality is that we have two sweet (when outside of the cage or talking to them) birds, who, as soon as hands or body parts are involved, turn into little maniacs (outside of the big female letting me pat her head sometimes when she is doing her weird dance and chatter).
Where to from here? I'm not even sure how to get them from the small aviary to the new larger one as they will kick up a huge stink and it will be a very stressful experience for them. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
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