How to Feed Lory's

[cody123]

Can someone explain how to feed these guys?
thanks Cody

[birdlady49]

We have some people owned by lories on this Board so you should receive plenty of information pretty soon.

Do you already have a lory or are you thinking of getting one? What type?

Here's one link I found about their dietary needs: The On-line Monograph of the Lories and Lorikeets (Formerly known as the LoryFAQ: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Lories and Lorikeets)

[cody123]

Just curious I guess, I dont come in contact with these alot in my area so just looking to learn a little more

[birdsnreps]

this is a breif description of feeding lories that i got from a friend of mine, dick schroeder:

Years ago, anyone keeping lories had his/her own diet that had to be made from scratch every few days at least. Most of these bordered on witchcraft, as everyone was certain that their birds just had to have this or that item included in the diet, for better or worse. Amazingly most of these "home brews" worked satisfactorily enough to keep the birds in seeming good health and even provided for some breeding. As lories became more available and popular commercial feeds were developed, first in Europe (Nekton and Biotropic) then in the US, (Lories Delight and Avico Lory Life). These brands a possibly a few others, are widely available to lory keepers and provide a couple of things that the home made diets do not. They are very simple to use, for the most part just add water (for the nectars) of provide a clean dry bowl (for the dry diets) and they were developed by professional nutritionists to provide all of the known dietary requirements. For those who still like making up their "witches brew" I suggest using one of the available lory mixes as the basis and adding fruit or vegetables to it in a blender. We feel that lories should not have an all "dry" diet. If this is the predominate factor in the diet we suggest lots of supplemental fruit and plenty of fresh water.

Lories will not do well on a diet to high in protein 15% should be the maximum. They are highly susceptible to gout and suffer kidney and liver problems as well. They should not be fed an amazon type of diet, full of legumes and such, as this is too much protein. Most any fruit is fine, but I would avoid avocado and pomegranates. We do fed the former to our softbills, but not to the parrots, and I know of three cases of lories becoming impacted on pomegranates. There are probably many who have eaten them with out a problem, but why take the chance? Lories have also been found to be susceptible to hemochromatosis (iron storage disease) and for that reason I would not offer raisins or other high iron content fruits.

We have hand reared many lories of many species and have had good results with several diets. There are certainly others besides the following, but these are the ones we can speak from experience on. Kaytee Exact (original formula) works great, and we have used it with success on many softbills as well as the parrots.

Avico Lory Life (either the Powder or the Nectar) mixed with baby applesauce (about 30%) works great as well.
Baby lories tend to cry more than other baby parrots, even when full. This should be no cause for alarm.

here is his website if you wanna check it out, i think it may have some more info:

Softbill Bird Food Softbills Bird Food Nectar Bird Food Discount Nectar Bird Food Wild Bird Seed

[birdlady49]

You know Dick Schroeder? How cool. I only met him once, when he was "dating" a friend of mine from Colorado Springs.

[birdsnreps]

hes wonderful, ive been talking to him alot lately cause im buying my first hornbill from him :) hes a very nice and helpful guy :)

[birdlady49]

Didn't you post a photo of the hornbill baby next to its parent? What a wonderful family addition!

[birdsnreps]

yea, thats my little female right there, with her daddy :) its gonna be alot of fun :) i should get her within 2 weeks :)

[cody123]

O I want to see ur Baby!

[stepht25]

I feed my Lory the following ~ Avico's Lory Life Powder (available to him at all times) I mix in some Lory pellets by Pretty Bird (but he plays with these more than he eats them). He gets fresh fruits/veggies at least 1x a day, some days I sprinkle some Avico Lory Life Nectar on them. Every once in awhile I mix up the nectar according to the directions on the container and offer it to him. I also give him a bit of the things I feed the other birds - birdie breads, rice, beans, pasta, cooked veggies etc. (I don't offer these every day) I have different fruits I blended into a liquid with a few veggies added to them and some cuttlebone mixed in. I froze the mixture in an ice cube tray, so I can just take one out when I want to feed him some and defrost it in the microwave. Sometimes I add some organic applesauce to it before feeding it. I have heard they can be offered sprouts, but haven't tried any yet.