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koukouvagia
Fledgeling
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 300
Location: Melbourne |
| converting a lorikeet to pellets |
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Hello, I don't know if anyone actually reads this forum since there's so few lory/lorikeet people around here, but I've just managed to convert my lorikeet from a nectar+dry mix diet to a nectar+pellets diet in less than 2 days and I thought I'd share the experience just in case it becomes useful for other lory/lorikeet owners.
I found this brand of US lory pellets called "Pretty Bird" that gets imported to Australia, and came with high recommendations from the staff at my local bird store (of course they were the ones selling it so I don't know how much that says, though they do give it to their own birds). Anyway, I thought I'd give it a go even though they're pretty pricey, and see how Pepe likes them since most people strongly recommend pellets.
We got the pellets a couple of days ago and I tried giving them to Pepe instead of his normal food (i.e. I completely removed his dry mix). As I feared, Pepe didn't have much interest in them. I tried adding some apple juice to make them softer but it seemed to make him dislike them even more. I even dropped treats on the mix to entice him to try the taste with his tongue but he seemed so disgusted he wouldn't even pick his favorite treats out of it lol. So apple juice turned out to be a baaad idea.
The next day I tried a different approach. Initially I put some yogurt on the tip of my finger and dipped it in the pellets so a few got stuck on the yogurt (they're really tiny). Pepe became mildly interested and had a bit of the mixture, but he was still not eating from the actual food bowl. Next approach was to grind them and add some water to make them into some kind of pellet "juice" ;P. That worked really well, in a few hours Pepe had finished all of it and licked the cup clean  . Since he now knew the taste and liked it, for the rest of the day I kept a normal food bowl with pellets in his cage, and every now and then I'd go and hold a treat in the food bowl until he came and picked it up, and of course I'd say "good bird" quite enthousiastically.. After a couple of go's he started going to the food bowl by himself and picking some pellets, and I was rewarding him enthousiastically, however each time he had to eat some more to get the reward (and I made sure I checked that he was actually eating, because he can be such a cheater!).
Anyway, today I didn't have to do anything to get him to eat them, he just went over and started munching by himself, yay! |
Sunday July 24, 2005 1:15 pm |
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Cheeta
Moderator
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 7956
Location: Australia |
Hey Koukouvagia...
I'm just curious, I can understand that for a parrot or cockatoo that eats seeds, it'd be better for them to go on the pellet diet, but I thought the dry mix (together with the nectar, and fruits) they get just about all the nutritional value they need, why would they want to convert them to pellet eating? Do they have some sort of special nutrional formula that is better for the lory?
My mum's Lory, (which by they way is now named RuYi - A chinese name meaning....ummm yeah... when I remember I'll tell ya... hehehehe) She loves her nectar and dry mix, and obviously fresh flowers and fruits as well. I would have thought that that was enough for her. May be I'll have to look into a pellet diet for RuYi. Thanks for that. |
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Sunday July 24, 2005 5:23 pm |
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koukouvagia
Fledgeling
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 300
Location: Melbourne |
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Well the pellets are supposed to contain 100% of their dietary needs, including the nectar and extra fruit/flowers/vegies (though I won't be replacing the nectar with them). I don't know if they're made with a special formula, but the person at the store said it makes them "bloom", so I thought I'd try it and see what he meant by that?  hehe. If you want I'd be happy to post the ingredients here .
One of the reasons that I wanted to try them is that I might not be able to provide fresh flowers, fruits or vegies every day to supplement the dry mix+nectar diet, and I wanted the bird to get a complete diet even when I happen to not be able to provide those things. I'm a uni student in my final year and things get really busy so shopping is sometimes low priority.
I'm pretty sure he'd be ok with just the nectar and dry mix anyway, but I thought why not try the pellets if they're supposed to be better. Once I'm sure that he's used to them I might start giving him a mixture of pellets & dry mix to bring down the cost a bit though.
If you want, I'll post and let you know if I observe any notable differences on the bird after being on this diet for a few weeks. |
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Sunday July 24, 2005 6:53 pm |
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shells picasso
Flier
Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 900
Location: Sydney |
Pellets are not as messy either. My lorikeets used to take a mouthful of dry nectar, mix it with the water, wipe the mixure all over the perches and cage, eat some of it, then fling the rest across the room. |
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Sunday July 24, 2005 10:07 pm |
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shells picasso
Flier
Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 900
Location: Sydney |
Pellets are not as messy either. My lorikeets used to take a mouthful of dry nectar, mix it with the water, wipe the mixure all over the perches and cage, eat some of it, then fling the rest across the room. |
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Sunday July 24, 2005 10:08 pm |
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koukouvagia
Fledgeling
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 300
Location: Melbourne |
LOL, so *that's* what that stuff was?! 
I'd been seeing it on the cage bars over his food bowls and was wondering what it was and how it got stuck there! |
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Monday July 25, 2005 12:46 am |
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shells picasso
Flier
Joined: 29 May 2005
Posts: 900
Location: Sydney |
It's messy eh? sets like concrete when it's dry too. I'd still give them some apple, grapes and vegies because they love them, I used to get frozen vegies and defrost them so I didn't have to keep going to the shop, the apples, grapes and spinach would last the week ok, just not as fresh as bought daily. |
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Monday July 25, 2005 1:14 pm |
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Cheeta
Moderator
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 7956
Location: Australia |
Oh cool Koukouvagia, I'll have to go to the bird place and have a look for the lory pellets for Ruyi and see how she likes it. May I ask how much the pellets actually cost?? |
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Monday July 25, 2005 2:11 pm |
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fruitbatjellybean
Egg
Joined: 13 Aug 2005
Posts: 22
Location: ADVERTISING NOT ALLOWED! |
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I just got a red lory, so Ive been looking into the pellets allot, Pretty Bird does have a special pellet specifically (sp) for lories, but the more and more I read about it, I decided to steer clear of the pretty bird, maybe Im being paranoid, but you need to keep the protein and iron down in their diets, you also need to keep down the asorbic acid (or vitamin C) because it increases the bioavailability of the iron, possibly leading to iron storage disease, which can be very bad! and fatal! I honestly was not all that impressed with the pretty bird pellets.
I think I'm steering towards the scenic lory pellets
I like how they list the vitamin and mineral content of their food, both on a dry matter basis and bioavailable
(they also have a softbill diet, but there is more protein in that)
http://www.scenicbirdfood.com/food.htm
and the goldenfeast lory powder
http://www.goldenfeast.net/nectargoldforlories.htm
and I think that you should probably still include a generous portion of fresh food in the diet as well.
Im still new to the lory thing, so if anyone has any suggestions, Im all ears!
Thanks!
Tammy |
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Saturday August 27, 2005 1:59 am |
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koukouvagia
Fledgeling
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 300
Location: Melbourne |
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Yeah, I only found about the bad sides of the PrettyBird pellets after I bought them and tried them! 
At the moment I'm giving him Wombaroo dry lorikeet mix and nectar (http://www.wombaroo.com.au/nectarivores.htm) since this is the only other lorikeet food I've found around my area and he loves it. He occasionally gets some PrettyBird in his second food bowl for variety, but he also gets fresh vegetables regularly as well as any (safe)flowers that I can find depending on the season. I try to give him fruits too but he's not very big on them. At the moment he's in heaven because the eycalyptus around my house are blooming and he loooooves their flowers .
I'd like to have him on some good pellets but I'm not really willing to be ordering them online from overseas all the time, it's easier to just supplement his diet with fresh food I think.
I'll be looking forward to seeing the progress of your red lory! I've never seen one in real life but they look so stunning in photos. I hope the hand feeding is going well |
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Saturday August 27, 2005 2:59 am |
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fruitbatjellybean
Egg
Joined: 13 Aug 2005
Posts: 22
Location: ADVERTISING NOT ALLOWED! |
The Baby red is doing very well, I just sent out a feather sample to have him/ her sexed, so when I get that back I'll finally be able to decide on a name
He still cries alot though, which I guess is normal, but it's just so constant, Im hoping that phase will pass soon!
Here are some pics I took the other day
Click here to see Baby Red
Click here to See Another one of Baby Red
Tammy |
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Tuesday August 30, 2005 11:51 am |
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Cheeta
Moderator
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 7956
Location: Australia |
OMG Tammy, Baby Red is just so adorable!! So RED too!! What brilliant colour! I can't say I've ever seen a red lory. I'll have to look it up to see what the adult version look like! I'm sure it'll be so very stunning!!! |
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Tuesday August 30, 2005 1:10 pm |
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ksue
Flier
Joined: 05 May 2005
Posts: 484
Location: Melbourne Australia |
They have a red lorry at the aust bird co in melb....saw it on sun when I went to see green cheeksit was very preety sad it was in a place like that (YUK) |
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Tuesday August 30, 2005 9:37 pm |
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Fluffy Sue
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 10063
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Oh my gosh, what a beautiful bird.. I am in awe.. I almost fell of my chair here..
What a vibrant color!
*Sigh* |
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Wednesday August 31, 2005 12:41 pm |
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