Lorikeet siblings feeding each other??

angeliicrose

New member
Nov 2, 2020
4
3
Hi all, i’ve had one of my lories for about 10 months and have recently adopted her brother who is the same age as her. i’ve noticed that they occasionally seem to be doing what looks like feeding each other. i’ve never owned more than one lorikeet before so i don’t know why this is, is it normal? do i need to buy seperate cages for them so that they stop? please help!!
 
Last edited:

LaManuka

Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Aug 29, 2018
25,551
Media
26
Albums
1
33,184
Queensland, Australia
Parrots
Fang ({ab}normal grey cockatiel), Valentino (budgie), Jem (cinnamon cockatiel), Lovejoy(varied lorikeet), Peach (princess parrot)
Hello angeliicrose, and welcome to the Forums!

Depending on which species your lories are, they may be approaching sexual maturity, or at least exhibiting the behaviour of allo-feeding, which is a mating behaviour in many bird species. The fact that they are siblings unfortunately will not prevent them from mating. It is important that they don’t have access to ANYTHING that might even remotely resemble a nesting site either inside or outside their cage, but even so that may not prevent mating and laying.

While it is not a behaviour you would necessarily want to encourage, if the mating is successful, eggs will likely result. Simply removing the eggs will likely result in the hen laying more and more, but you do not however want the eggs to hatch as the chicks will obviously be inbred. The best way to deal with unwanted eggs, if you’re unable to buy a suitable dummy or fake facsimile, is to boil the eggs, let them cool, and return them to the hen to sit on. This solves several problems in that it means they will not hatch, and it also means that if your hen should accidently break the shell after several weeks of determined sitting (like my Lilly does!), you don’t have a nasty smelly bacteria-laden mess to have to clean up, and probably clean off your hen!

Egg-laying should not be encouraged though because it can lead to health problems for your hen, such as nutritional deficiencies caused by chronic egg laying, and egg-binding which can be life-threatening. If you are able to house them in separate cages to prevent mating altogether that would probably be for the best. You’ll need to be vigilant and supervise them whenever they are out together because they can be very determined indeed.

I wish you the very best of luck with them :)
 
Last edited:

Most Reactions

Top