Not so easy

[Newticus]

Ok, so I have looked after a number of lories in the pet store I used to work for.
I saw an add for a black lory and she was delived today!
But I also just read the atricle on lory diet in the BirdTalk magazine for Auguest and now I'm not sure what to feed her. I have to watch out for too much vit A and too much sugar.
Right now I have the zoopream lory diet nectar powder and it doesn't give a lot of detail about what's in the food.
I also have the food she came with and nothing is written in english, so again I don't know what's in it.
There is a lot of starch sugars in the zoopream food awell.

She is not tame at all and looks in raggety condition. The guy I got her off of bought her from some sort of breeder/pet store, who got her from some lady who loved her but couldn't look after her any more.

She is plucking her chest and the first place I want to start is with a good, sound diet.
What are you guys feeding your lory(s)
Yes I know about freash fruits and veggies, but as a staple, commercial diet, what is being used out there?

Any help would be great thanks!

Melanie

[LoryLady]

Dr Macs and Wombaroo are good brands!

[Ashling]

Congrats on yur new lorry! It's so great of you to take her in, it sounds like she's had a tough life so far. I can't wait to hear about her progress!

At the moment I am feeding "complete lorikeet" by Passwell. It says it is a completely balanced diet for lorikeets, and has a lot of information about ingredients, amount to feed each kind of lorikeet and whether they are an aviary bird, pet or breeder as well as dependent on temperature and amount of other foods given to the bird. The mix contains vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids and fatty acids.

Minimum crude protein: 13%
Minimum crude Fat: 6%
Minimum Fibre 3%
Minimum Salt: 1%
Do you want the entire list of ingredients?

If you can get native flowers from where black lorries come from, that would be great as well... providing protein and nutrients from pollen and energy from nectar. I think even if you can grow gravilleas, this would be good for her.

[WhiteRaven]

Hi there, congrats on your Black Lory! I have heard so many good things about that species. With a lot of love and patience I'm sure she will become friendly as lories in general can be tamed readily.

I have not heard that about a lot of Vit A being bad for lories, that is interesting. Do you have any more info?

I am guessing that the brands here in Australia are not available in the US? I use Dr Macs Lorikeet and Passwell Complete Lorikeet which are Australian (so is Wombaroo). You will want to choose a very high quality brand for your lory. I believe Lory Life is a highly reccomended brand, other US members could help you.

If you are going to feed dry, place it next to the water so your lory can make its own wet mix. I prefer to provide dry at all times with mine (the dry food I used is a dry/wet mix, meaning that it can be used in both forms and is healthier). You can also make up a wet mix to feed but it needs to be taken out of the cage again after a while to prevent spoiling.

Then of course the fruit and veges which you know about. Fruit is a very important part of a lorie's diet, much more so than other parrots (who need veges more than fruit). Don't feed too many foods high in iron because lories and lorikeets have a problem with storing too much iron.

Also, photos please! :D

[magdalena]

I fed Dr. Harvey's Lory Delight which is organic and seemed to go over very well. I think these are the only ingredients:

A holistic blend of Bee Pollen, Fructose, Organic Kamut Flour, Organic Spelt Flour, Organic Buckwheat Flour, Organic Barley Flour, Whole Egg Powder, Spirulina, Nutritional Yeast, Flax Seed Meal, Apple Powder, Carrot Powder and Orange Peel Granules.

[Newticus]

I am actually in Canada, but I can probably get US brands.

Appearently vit A is not great because they wouldn't get it in the wild - no plant makes vit A. You can over do vit A, with any animal causing a type of vit A toxic build up. It's much better to get vit A from beta-carotene which can be made into vit A as needed.
It is often added to parrot diets because some birds only eat seeds and seeds are deficient in vit A along with a number of other vitamins.

Thanks! I will look into the brands mentioned.
She ate infront of me today and made some calls, which were the first sounds I've heard her make in 2 days. So things are going well so far.

This is what she is supposed to look like, I don't have any pictures of her yet though



She doesn't look nearly this nice yet though,,,,

[Ashling]

I love that picture... absolutely stunning. Can't wait to see your girl :)