Good or bad?

[Ashling]

I was thinking about putting pellets into Ashling's diet (rainbow lorikeet), and heard that lorikeets don't have gizzards and can't process them!? I thought this was a bit silly- what's a bird to do without a gizzard? I found out that they actually do have gizzards...

BUT I also heard that they can't digest pellets easily... does anyone know? The pellets I was looking at had a picture of a black capped lory, a scaley breasted lorikeet and a honey eater on it- so it was made for lorikeets and such. It was called nectar pellets or something

Another thing is that I heard grapes and spinach have alot of iron in them- I feed lots of these to Ashling- should I stop? Lower the amount? Are they bad for her? I thought they were really good for her! Now I'm not too sure!

If anyone knows alot about bird nutrition, or just knows of these things, I'd love to hear from you!
Thanks,
~Melanie and Ash.

[Monica]

I don't really know what foods are best to stay clear from when speaking of lories (when it comes to fresh foods), nor do I know what a suitable amount of iron may be for a lories diet, but here's some sites that list foods with iron....

High/Low Iron Diet
Iron
Foods High in Iron
FOODS HIGH IN IRON (little funky at the very end...)

As far as I've learned on lories, they can't handle dry foods like pellets, seeds, breads, etc. They were designed to eat a moist diet (although I don't really know everything they eat in the wild), which is apparent by their nectar diet... I HAVE heard of people feeding dry nectar mixes for lories, and I've also heard of people soaking pellets in water or 100% unsweetened fruit juice, letting it get soggy, then feeding to lories.

[LGood22573]

Grapes and spinach are high in iron, and in my opinion, should be fed with caution. I still gave my lory the occasional grape. Raisins are much higher in iron even than grapes. They can be prone to iron storage disease, so iron should be kept to a minimum in their diet. I don't think an occasional grape or bite of spinach would be a problem. But I wouldn't feed it on a regular basis.

I don't think pellets made specifically for lories would be a problem, as long as it is not the main diet. I always used the lorylife nectar as the main diet and then added other fruits and veg daily. I tried the lory pellets once, but he said NO WAY!

I agree that the wet nectar diet is the best for their systems, and I also heard for their kidneys. So pellet diet would not be good for their system, if it was fed exclusively, but I think something extra to munch on wouldn't be a problem at all, if it is made exclusively for lories.

[Ashling]

wow thanks everyone, that's perfect :) Oh NO! practically everything I feed her has iron in it! I'll cut down on the spinach and grapes, MAYBE buy some pellets as a training tool? Hmm... soaked in apricot nectar sounds glorious! Yes I was scared because of their being prone to iron storage disease. So definately cutting down! Thanks a bunch.

[Monica]

A lot of foods contain iron... I think it's best however to stay clear of foods that are high in iron, which may include raisins and spinach, just to name a couple.... btw, this website may be of help to you!

Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis – NutritionData.com

[Ashling]

You and you sites Monica! You're a legend. Thank you! :D

[Monica]

LOL! Your welcome! Wish I could help you further, but I'm far from being an expert of any sort on lories! I just know general stuff, ya know?

I'd love to have a lory, but right now I don't think I could handle the diet, let alone mess! So, I learn and get to experience from people who own them!

[BiiRDiiELuV805]

I make a mixture that a reputive breeder does as well which is equal parts of Powder nectar, un sweetened apple sauce, water, real honey and 100% apple fruit juice (i have the Jack Lalane juicer especially for this), i sometimes also add a little bit of carrot puree (boil the carrots (i use baby carrots) until soft then mash them and mix everything, you can also freeze this in ice cube molds and give them 4 ice cubes at each feeding time.

[Courtzrocks]

I would avoid hard foods for lorikeets as they can wear the brush off the tongue and make it hard for them to eat the foods they should eat.

[birdsnreps]

lories cannot digest anything thats hard, including their own special lory pellets. lory pellets are ok for them but you must soak them in their nectar and make sure they are soft before you feed them to the bird, and of course give her as much variety as possible, you never wanna only feed a bird just one type of food (but you already knew that :) i would feed as much fresh stuff as possible though, but thats just me ;)