Does anyone actually feed their Lories this?

[MissV]

Pretty Bird Species Specific Lory Food


Honestly was just curious....I know Lories are nectar birds. Doesn't this seem just...kinda wrong?

[Scritch]

Originally Posted by MissV

Pretty Bird Species Specific Lory Food


Honestly was just curious....I know Lories are nectar birds. Doesn't this seem just...kinda wrong?

... sigh. Yes people do. I wouldn't. I never even felt good about feeding the so-called "nectar," most of which is sugar plus vitamin supplements. But dry pellets are even worse, IMHO, since lories just aren't built to digest dry foods. I suppose you could soak the pellets, though.

I dunno. I don't much like pellets, anyway, lol, for lories or anything else.

[MissV]

Well, I provide the pellets just to double check and make sure that they're getting a good mix of vitamins and such. 'Sides, they really do like to crunch things. I've caught them chewing their food for fun rather than ingesting it!

But, back to Lories....yeah. Then do they sell like, natural nectar for them? Is that what they give them in butterfly houses/aviaries?

[Scritch]

MissV, I'm in the minority here and many more people agree with you about feeding pellets to round out the diet than they do with me, but studies on human vitamin supplements (basically the same thing as the stuff in pellets) show they really don't do any good. People aren't any healthier with vitamin supplements than without them. Many vitamins only work in concert with other vitamins and nutrients, many in ways science doesn't understand yet. The more we learn, the more it seems there's a rhyme and reason to the combinations of nutrients in any given natural food, and even in the meals we put together. For instance, we cannot fully digest the vitamin K in our salads if we don't consume a little fat (salad dressing!) with it. Which is not the only reason I hate non-fat salad dressings, but a good one. That's just one example we know of. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, we don't. Which might be part of the explanation why vitamins work, but they don't seem to work nearly as well when separated from the foods they naturally occur in.

Pellets are just processed wheat and corn with vitamin supplementation. The wheat and corn don't have much nutrition to begin with, most of it is removed in processing, and the vitamin supplementation meant to replace it has been shown to do little or no good. In other words, pellets are pretty much always going to be substandard to "real" food. IMHO lol ... like I said, I'm out on my own on this one.

ANYway... ... I don't know what they feed the lories in the free-flying aviaries. My guess would be either a standard lory nectar, or maybe just the sugar water they feed hummingbirds and butterflies. Lories can cope with a lot more sugar in their diet than most parrots, otherwise they wouldn't survive on the real stuff, but I just don't know about giving them huge amounts of it. In the wild, they'd be eating not just the nectar, but also the pollen and the flower itself, not to mention probably the leaves, buds etc. The real sugary part, the nectar, would be a small portion of their diet... I would think. Plus wild lories of course get considerably more exercise than our pet ones. Yet still the lory nectars for captive lories are very high in sugar, it's the first ingredient in all of them that I know of. I think the pellets are grain-based, rather than sugar-based, which isn't any better -- lories aren't grain eaters!

My lory got fat on lory nectar. I fed the good stuff, either Lory Life or Nekton, so it wasn't a matter of it being a bad brand (there are some VERY bad lory foods out there). I cut it down to a treat every few days, and gave her mostly fresh foods instead, and she slimmed down and her feather condition improved.

[MissV]

....can you feed them flowers then? 0.0

That'd be kind of awesome, just saying.



About vitamins...well, I know from experience that supplements can help. I have a bad tendency towards chronic anemia, so I've been on and off iron pills. They definitely make the difference. But honestly? The side effects just aren't worth it. I manage it by spinach, beets, and red meat intake.

I've heard that from doctors too. Basically the current general consensus is that vitamins provide some help, but your body can only absorb so much in that way, and in the end fresh food is always better.

I'm not sure anyone could ever argue that fresh food isn't always better o.0 As long as it's healthy food ^^

which...is why I've made every effort ever since I joined this board, actually, to provide fresh fruite, veggies, nuts, and grains on a regular basis for my lil' ones. <3

[Scritch]

Yes, lories love flowers! Other parrots like them, too. They have to be safe ones, of course. I forget all the safe/unsafe flowers but there's lists. I used to give my lory big bunches of lilacs in the spring... I don't know how much she ate and how much she just pulled apart, but she had fun.

Fortunately her new family (my father's side of the family) are gardeners!

[dmiller91]

all my birds love clover - sweet clover (purple) and the little yellow clover, especially the blossoms. Don't have Lories though.

[Ashling]

No I don't feed that to my lori. I agree it is wrong. I'll tell you a GREAT alternative to the messy diet: DON'T GET A LORY.

In aviaries I'm pretty sure they're just fed nectar mix, fruits and veg- that's what I fed when my lori was in an aviary, and that's what I feed now.

Oh MissV pellets can ruin the palate on the roof of the mouth (they use this to scrape nectar off their tongues and into their mouths to be swallowed and digested) which can slowly cause them to become malnourished since they can't eat foods properly and they starve as they get older. Please don't feed this to your lory. It's best just to feed the right flowers, veg, fruits, sprouts, nectar mix etc- they must all be soft foods. Although yes lories may LOVE to chew hard things, it is not good for them. Ashling often chokes if she is given a crumb of toast, while my tiel has never had a problem; it's because it's unnatural for lories to eat hard foods. If you MUST feed pellets, then soak them in 100% apple juice- or a mix of fruits. It'll be an absolute hit, I bet! If you think yours needs extra vitamins, a vet check and then you can get the proper additives. Too much vitamins can be just as bad as too little.

YES you can feed them flowers! I pick mine fresh flowers everyday- red and also yellow grevillea usually but also box iron bark flowers, bottlebrush, wattle and some other species of flower. We are lucky to have them naturally available and have at least 6 different species growing within a 100 meters of my house. You can buy a tree to have in your home. Lories can also eat roses and rose hips- apparently they love that! I know Ashling does. I know they like dandelions and their leaves as well- which is very good for them

[MissV]

Ashling - Oh, I don't have a Lory.....yet. >_>

Maybe sooome day. But I was going through drs website and having a great interest in all your posts about Ashling, I figured I would ask.


Seriously...sooomeday. When I have room and am not renting. XD

[Ashling]

Originally Posted by MissV

Well, I provide the pellets just to double check and make sure that they're getting a good mix of vitamins and such. 'Sides, they really do like to crunch things. I've caught them chewing their food for fun rather than ingesting it!

But, back to Lories....yeah. Then do they sell like, natural nectar for them? Is that what they give them in butterfly houses/aviaries?

Ah sorry I didn't catch the "back to lories" bit- I thought you were talking about them at first. I wondered why I hadn't remembered you having lorries before! Well now at least you know what I think of lorries and pellets/ hard foods! What species are you interested in??