Baby lorikeet seems scared

[lorika]

Hi all,

My baby rainbow lorikeet Loki has been with us for three days now. He seems really scared. When feeding him, he'll try to run towards me as soon as I let go of him. Whenever I let him walk around a little, he'll immediately crawl onto my shoulder (under my shirt) and stay there for over an hour, hiding.

I've put him in a large cage but I put a small cardboard box lined with some small towels in it so he can feel comfortable. He doesn't even seem to want to move around within the little box, though. Is this normal for a baby? Does he just have to get used to not being around his parents anymore?
Does it just take time, or is there anything I can do to make him at ease?

Thanks a lot guys.
Stella

 

[Ann333]

How old is he? Is he fully fledged?

 

[Flboy]

Per another post, 6 weeks!

 

[lorika]

Sorry, I should've mentioned! He's 6.5 weeks old and has some feathers but some bald spots as well. He definitely can't fly yet but will sometimes wildly flap his wings (randomly, while he's basically lying face-down in his box). So he's not fully fledged. It is normal for him to be a little scared until then?

He seems a little better in the past few hours, climbing to my neck and trying to gnaw the buttons off my shirt and gently nipping at my skin.

 

[Ann333]

I don't know anything about baby baby birds, but it sounds like maybe he wasn't ready to go to a new home yet. If he isn't fully fledged he should still be with his breeder. The questions you are asking seem like questions that a breeder would know the answers to and if there is a problem the breeder would catch it a lot sooner than a novice... I'm not sure what your situation is but maybe you should ask your breeder or your vet. You should never bring home a baby bird that isn't fully fledged, there are too many thinks that could go wrong. And even if nothing is wrong with the bird a novice may "kill it with kindness" over worrying and overhelping. Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in cause it sounds like you need help.

 

[lorika]

Well... okay then.

I did ask the breeder, who said that he just needed some time to get used to it all.

It turned out fine, the lorikeet is a lot happier He's eating and drinking on his own now and is practicing flying a lot. I find that he just really likes to be in a cuddly environment. When he's relaxed, he'll go out on an adventure from time to time, but he is still young so he just prefers to have a towel or something over his body when eating or being picked up.