Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to present....

[LaManuka]

Like a Pixie princess! Does eucalyptus bloom all year? How do you feed these little ones??? Are they ever in the US?

The Crown Princess is currently sitting in the sun preening herself after a quick bath (and basking in all your generous flattery everyone! She knows exactly how pretty she is!) I sneaked over to our local primary school with my trusty secateurs to raid some eucalypt flowers for her this morning - I think they’re actually more beneficial for enrichment than actual food cos she has usually eaten any nectar within the first half hour but she continues to go back and rummage through them on & off all day. For food she gets a commercially prepared dry nectar powder plus fruit and leafy greens, and at least once a day I give her a wet version of the nectar mix but it can only be left out for a couple of hours before it goes off and whatever is left has to be thrown out. That along with the liquid poop that follows is I think what puts a lot of people off owning lorikeets. With tiny little lories like Lilly however, the poop isn’t so much of an issue

Purple crowns are not so easy to find here so I don’t know how you’d go in the USA. They do breed fairly readily though. Years ago we heard an anecdote from a local guy who wanted to start breeding them and bought a pair but he was worried about how long it might take them to breed, getting just the right conditions for them etc. He said he needn’t have worried cos the pair were at it in his car on the drive home, randy little sods!

 

[LaManuka]

What do you think of my new hair ornament? Easy enough to get in there, but takes a bit of work to extract!

 

[Terry57]

That's the most beautiful hair ornament I have ever seen, I neeeeed one!

 

[ChristaNL]

Terry said it!

 

[Amsterdam]

She is so beautifull wow love the colors!

 

[Laurasea]

Looks trend setting! What a sweetie,! You can post a pic every day!

 

[LaManuka]

Looks trend setting! What a sweetie,! You can post a pic every day!

Don’t encourage me cos you know I will!

Here she is yesterday having her midday snooze. Years ago when I had Sludge I took a quick trip to Thailand and while there I bought a little bag made of raw Thai silk to carry my water bottle and various bits around in. When I got home Sludge claimed it as his and loved playing and snoozing in it. Now Crown Princess Lilly has decided she loves it too! It must be a lorikeet thing.

The cuteness continues...

 

[Rozalka]

I love her colors!!!

 

[LaManuka]

Well it's been a few daze since I've bored you all to death with pics of Princess Lilly so here goes.....

Here she is demolishing a bouquet of eucalypt flowers which I risked my life and limb raiding from our local primary school. I get out there at some ungodly hour of the morning with my trusty secateurs in hand before the scary groundskeeper gets there and harvest whatever I can find and beat a hasty retreat (you can just see it now can't you!)

The main flowering seasons for many eucalypt species are winter and spring so I have NO idea what i'm going to do once there's no more blossom available and she gets ravenous - she's a tiny little thing but she's relentless when she wants something!

PS Thanks to Scott I finally worked out how to post BIG pictures... thanx Scott!

PPS Lilly shown here larger than actual size!!!

 

[Laurasea]

Those colors are amazing. I read they eat the pollen to, definitely a fairy princess!

 

[LaManuka]

Yes Laurasea actually I bought some bee pollen for her - she’s so tiny I pop maybe a half dozen granules in her dry mix per WEEK! No idea if she actually eats them though. I got it from a health food website, all certified organic and everything. It tastes like honeycomb)

 

[GaleriaGila]

Seriously, every time I think I'm OVER HER (colors, cuteness, etc.), I get blind-sided again. Hair ornament... brooch... Christmas ornament... GEEZ. What an amazing little treasure.

 

[LaManuka]

Thanx Gail, she does LOOK awfully cute... most of the time... except when she is if full attack mode with tail fanned out, red in beak and claw and feathers all fuzzed up and ready to attack ME ... actually she's still pretty cute then too. I shouldn't laugh at her when she goes on the offensive but it is awfully funny, I'm working on getting a video of it!

Meanwhile the inimitable LeaKP said it best when she posted this classic. Completely true of Crown Princess Lilly Pilly!

 

[Anansi]

Well it's been a few daze since I've bored you all to death with pics of Princess Lilly so here goes.....

Here she is demolishing a bouquet of eucalypt flowers which I risked my life and limb raiding from our local primary school. I get out there at some ungodly hour of the morning with my trusty secateurs in hand before the scary groundskeeper gets there and harvest whatever I can find and beat a hasty retreat (you can just see it now can't you!)

The main flowering seasons for many eucalypt species are winter and spring so I have NO idea what i'm going to do once there's no more blossom available and she gets ravenous - she's a tiny little thing but she's relentless when she wants something!

PS Thanks to Scott I finally worked out how to post BIG pictures... thanx Scott!

PPS Lilly shown here larger than actual size!!!

This bird just takes my breath away every time I see her! Beautiful!

One thing, though. Be careful of the sharp edges that can result from clipping short those plastic tie straps. They can be dangerous, especially to their eyes. I actually once slit my forearm open reaching past one. It's specifically the shortest clipped one in the pic that drew my attention.

Personally, I use a needle nose pliers to twist the extra length off right at the latch so there is no sharp edge.

 

[LaManuka]

Brilliant advice Anansi you are quite right! I’m careful to blunt the sharp edges of the foliage left from cutting but didn’t think to do the same with the zip ties (duh!) - I’ll make sure to do that in future!

Thank You much appreciated

 

[GaleriaGila]

Anansi... Guardian Angel. He always trouble-shoots so well. He caught a couple of potential hazards in a couple of the Rb's photos. Needle-nose pliers, eh? I'm on that.

 

[Anansi]

You're welcome, LaManuka! We've all got to watch out for each other, right?

And thanks, Abs! Though bad boy RB probably already snipped any sharp ends off and fashioned them into makeshift shivs, already. Tell Rival to watch his back!

 

[LaManuka]

Don’t go giving La Principessa any ideas! Eucalypt blossom season is just about over and she had to make do with fruit compote this morning - I may get a shiv between the shoulder blades for that!

 

[Scott]

Anansi... Guardian Angel. He always trouble-shoots so well. He caught a couple of potential hazards in a couple of the Rb's photos. Needle-nose pliers, eh? I'm on that.

Pliarceps as special tool?

 

[LaManuka]

Cute photo du jour!

Finally the ice has been broken and Princess Lilly has decided her big hairy scary daddy isn't so scary after all - due in no small part to the sterling example being set here by elder statesman Fang. Admittedly she is not yet entirely convinced but significant progress is being made!

And you won't believe this but she has pretty much potty-trained herself too! She will wait until she flits back to her cage before she lets rip that legendary liquid poop she's such a clever little thing!