Bringing home a lorikeet or lori is exciting, but these bright, high-energy birds need the right diet, housing and handling from day one. This lorikeet care guide from Birdsville, Sydney’s bird specialists, covers everything from the first few days home to long-term diet, health and training, so you know exactly what your new bird needs before it arrives.

Quick Facts

Scientific name: Trichoglossus moluccanus (Rainbow Lorikeet) and related lory and lorikeet species
Alt/common names: Lori, Lory
Adult size: 25 to 30cm
Lifespan: 15 to 30 years, with some individuals living even longer under excellent care
Diet type: Nectarivore (nectar and pollen feeder)
Enclosure minimum: 90cm L x 60cm W x 90cm H, always go bigger if you can
Temperature: comfortable room temperature, no cold draughts or direct extreme heat
Experience level: Intermediate

On This Page

Lorikeets as Pets
Essential Supplies for Lorikeets
Housing
Toys & Enrichment
Diet & Feeding
Providing Water to Your Lorikeets
Mineral Supplements and Vitamins
Behaviour & Handling
Training
Common Health Issues
Parasite Control
Vaccination and Desexing
Health, Hygiene & Safety
Toxic & Dangerous Hazards
General Care and Grooming
Visual & Health Checks
Sexing
Record Keeping
Holiday Care
Transportation
Compatibility with Other Animals
Boarding
Frequently Asked Questions
Recommended Vets and Links

Lorikeets as Pets

Lorikeets and loris are playful, colourful and genuinely interactive birds, often described as the class clowns of the parrot world. They’re intelligent enough to learn tricks and a few words, bond closely with their owner, and are naturally cheeky, with a real tendency to nip and “play fight” as part of normal behaviour. They’re also one of the louder companion birds, worth keeping in mind if you’re in an apartment or share walls with neighbours. A lorikeet suits someone who wants an active, hands-on relationship with their bird, not a quiet, low-interaction pet.

Because they’re already close to full adult size by the time they’re weaned and sold, a baby lorikeet can go straight into the same full sized cage an adult would use. There’s no need to start it in a smaller cage first.

Essential Supplies for Lorikeets

Housing & Enclosure

Secure, front-opening cage sized for the species, escape-proof locks or clips, a variety of perches of different widths and textures, swings, and a carry cage for vet visits or travel.

Water & Feeding

Shallow, stable dishes for dry mix, a separate dish for wet mix, a water bottle or sipper, a spoon for hand-feeding if needed, and food storage containers.

Enrichment & Toys

A large, rotating variety of foot toys, hanging toys, natural chew toys, luffa toys and plastic toys, in both sturdy and easily destructible types.

Supplements

Calcium bells or a calcium perch, a vitamin supplement for the water (only if your chosen food doesn’t already contain one), and an iodine supplement where needed.

Hygiene & Cleaning

A bird-safe disinfectant for the cage, dishes and perches, since spoiled wet mix residue builds up bacteria quickly.

Transport

A secure, well ventilated carry cage for any trip away from home.

First Aid & Grooming

A digital scale for regular weight checks (weight loss is often the first sign something’s wrong), styptic powder in case a nail is trimmed too short, and fine-tipped tweezers for splinter or minor first aid needs.

What You May Consider

A shallow bathing dish or bird mister, a second smaller cage for travel or vet stays, and a cage cover for consistent night time sleep.

Everything above, and more, is available in-store, and our team is happy to help you put the right combination together.

Housing

Choose the biggest cage you can fit, at minimum 90cm L x 60cm W x 90cm H. Lorikeets kept in cages that are too small tend to become harder to train and more prone to aggression and ongoing behavioural problems, so cage size genuinely affects how good a pet your lorikeet turns out to be. Make sure there’s enough room for toys, swings and a proper wing flap without hitting the bars.

Place the cage somewhere free of draughts and away from the kitchen, since cooking fumes are a serious hazard covered in Toxic & Dangerous Hazards below. A quiet, low-traffic spot works best for the first few days while your lorikeet settles in.

Toys & Enrichment

Lorikeets are a very high energy species and need a lot of toys to stay mentally stimulated. Keep a wide variety on hand, from strong, long-lasting toys to flimsy ones your bird can tear apart, including foot toys, hanging toys, natural chew toys, luffa toys and plastic toys. Avoid stringy or fibrous toys your bird could get tangled in, since lorikeets have been known to get themselves into trouble with these. Rotate toys regularly to keep things interesting.

Swings are especially good for this active species, giving them a fun way to exercise muscles they wouldn’t use standing on a still perch. Environmental enrichment isn’t optional here. Raising a lorikeet with plenty of stimulation while it’s young and its brain is still developing shapes a friendly, happy adult bird. Without that groundwork, boredom driven aggression tends to follow.

Diet & Feeding

Fruits & Veggie Guide

As nectar feeders, lorikeets do not eat seed and need a nectar-specific mix, given wet or dry.

For the first 5 days home, watch a new lorikeet closely to make sure it’s warm and eating. Feed a wet mix made with warm water, especially for a baby bird, and keep a spoon handy since some nectar feeding birds need encouragement to eat when they first arrive. Change wet mix at least every 4 hours in hot weather, since it spoils quickly and spoiled mix can cause a bacterial infection serious enough to be fatal, particularly in baby birds whose immune systems aren’t fully developed yet.

Once your lorikeet is around 8 weeks old and eating well, it can be weaned onto dry mix. Dry mix should be available at all times and replaced fresh daily, since it’s far easier to manage than wet mix and doesn’t carry the same spoilage risk. Unlike seed-eating parrots, lorikeets aren’t usually fed a strict measured daily portion. Free access to a quality dry mix, topped up daily, is the normal adult feeding routine.

Fruits

Apple, pear, melon, papaya and mango in small amounts, as an occasional supplement to the nectar mix, not a daily staple.

Vegetables

Small amounts of leafy greens or grated carrot offered occasionally, though lorikeets rely far less on vegetables than seed-eating parrots do.

Protein & Treats

Nectar flowers, nectar treat bars and dried fruit, fed in moderation. Use high-quality lorikeet-specific brands, since cheaper or supermarket brands often carry very high sugar levels that can cause hyperactivity and aggression, and mean your bird needs to drink far more water to process it, leading to noticeably “squirty” droppings.

Avoid Entirely

Avocado, chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, high sugar or high salt human food, and any food or supplement with added iron. Lorikeets and loris are prone to iron storage disease, covered under Common Health Issues below, so a properly formulated low-iron lorikeet diet matters more for this species than most.

Providing Water to Your Lorikeets

Always keep a fresh supply of water available. Lorikeets sometimes bathe in their water bowl on a hot day, which can leave the bowl empty or fouled right when your bird needs to drink most, so check it more than once a day in warm weather and consider offering a separate shallow bathing dish so drinking water stays clean and available.

Mineral Supplements and Vitamins

Vitamin supplement: add via the water supply around twice a week, only if your chosen lorikeet food doesn’t already have vitamins added. Some lorikeets are sensitive to high vitamin levels, so don’t double up by adding a supplement to a food that’s already fortified.

Calcium: don’t offer grit as a calcium source. Instead, add a calcium source to the water or provide calcium bells or a calcium perch.

Vitamin D: essential for calcium absorption, but not necessary if your bird gets more than 3 hours of unfiltered sunlight a week. Sunlight through a window is filtered by the glass, so it doesn’t count.

Iodine: many lorikeets are iodine deficient, so check whether your chosen food already includes it and supplement separately if it doesn’t.

Behaviour & Handling

Give a newly arrived lorikeet space rather than diving straight into handling. Landing in an unfamiliar cage is stressful, and it’s completely normal for appetite to dip for the first day or so while it finds its feet. Hold off on training until you’re seeing it eat and move around confidently again.

Basic training and socialisation bring real benefits for both you and your bird, but they take dedication, repetition and patience, especially in the first few weeks. If your lorikeet bites you, don’t pull away. Pulling back rewards the bite with exactly the reaction it was after, so stay calm and keep working through it. Ignore unwanted behaviour and reward the good, and remember lorikeets are naturally cheeky and nippy, with a real tendency to “play fight” as part of normal behaviour rather than genuine aggression. That said, a lorikeet that’s rarely handled can become fearful and harder to manage, so daily interaction matters just as much as patience during training.

The opposite extreme causes problems too. Handling a stressed, moulting or newly arrived bird too much, or forcing interaction when it’s trying to retreat, tends to backfire, teaching it that biting or fleeing is the only way to get a break. Short, calm sessions that end on a good note beat one long forced session every time.

Training

Training works best once your lorikeet is settled and eating well. Keep sessions short, calm and consistent, and lean on positive reinforcement over punishment, since lorikeets respond far better to reward than correction. Visit our in-store bird training page, Facebook and Instagram for more tips and updates.

Common Health Issues

Candidiasis (Yeast Infection)

A fungal infection most common in young, unweaned birds, usually triggered by spoiled wet mix or unclean feeding equipment. Watch for white patches in the mouth, loss of appetite, regurgitation or a thickened crop. Fresh wet mix changed regularly and clean feeding dishes are the main prevention.

Iron Storage Disease (Hemochromatosis)

Lorikeets and loris are unusually sensitive to excess dietary iron, which builds up in the liver over time and can become life threatening if left unmanaged. The main prevention is feeding a properly formulated low-iron lorikeet diet instead of a general parrot or softbill mix.

Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD)

A highly contagious virus affecting feather and beak growth, with no cure once a bird is infected. Some carriers show no early symptoms, which is part of why buying from a reputable, health-checked source matters. A vet can test for it if you’re ever concerned.

Chlamydiosis (Psittacosis)

A bacterial infection that spreads between birds and, in rare cases, to people, causing flu-like symptoms in humans. Signs in birds include lethargy, eye or nasal discharge, green droppings and weight loss. It’s treatable with a long course of vet-prescribed antibiotics, and good hygiene plus quarantining new birds both reduce the risk.

Parasite Control

Worm your lorikeet 4 times a year. A baby bird should have its first worming 7 days after coming home, not immediately, since worming too early can upset a young bird’s crop and digestion right after the stress of moving.

Apply a mite and lice spray every 3 months, timed alongside worming for convenience. Lice and mites spread easily even to birds kept entirely indoors, so this applies whether or not your lorikeet ever goes outside.

New lorikeet joining a household that already has other birds? Keep it separated for 4 to 6 weeks before introducing them, long enough for any parasites or illness to surface before your existing birds are exposed to it.

Vaccination and Desexing

There’s no standard vaccination program or routine desexing procedure for pet lorikeets in Australia, unlike cats, dogs or rabbits. The best protection against illness is the parasite control routine above, a clean environment, and regular vet checks.

Health, Hygiene & Safety

Daily

Fresh food and water, spot cleaning droppings, and wiping up any wet mix spills before they dry on.

Weekly

A full cage wash, with perches, dishes and toys disinfected using a bird-safe cleaner.

Monthly

A deeper clean of tray liners and a check over all toys for wear, replacing anything frayed or damaged.

Always wash your hands after handling wet mix or cleaning the cage, particularly important given the (rare) zoonotic risk covered under Chlamydiosis above.

Toxic & Dangerous Hazards

Food hazards to keep away from your lorikeet are covered in the Avoid Entirely section of the Fruits & Veggie Guide above, including the added iron risk specific to this species.

Around the home, non-stick Teflon cookware releases fumes that are fatal to birds within minutes when overheated, so keep your lorikeet’s cage well away from the kitchen. Aerosols, air fresheners, scented candles and cigarette smoke are all serious respiratory hazards too. Supervise any out-of-cage time near windows, mirrors, ceiling fans or open doors, and never leave a lorikeet unsupervised around cats or dogs. Cheap toys or cage hardware made with galvanised wire can contain zinc, which causes heavy metal poisoning if chewed, so stick to bird-safe products.

Be especially careful offering flower clippings to a baby lorikeet, since its immune system isn’t fully developed yet and it can be highly susceptible to bacteria carried on plants wild birds have had contact with. Hold off on flowers until your bird is at least 6 months old, and when you do offer them, stick to native Australian species that haven’t been sprayed with pesticide.

General Care and Grooming

Nails: a variety of perch textures helps wear nails down naturally, but we also offer in-store nail clipping 7 days a week if yours need a trim.

Wings: there are pros and cons to wing clipping. It won’t guarantee your lorikeet can’t fly away, but it does reduce flight enough to let it glide safely to the ground, which can make training and bonding easier to manage. A bird clipped at purchase that’s later allowed to grow its flight feathers back generally gets plenty of exercise and shows improved confidence. Chat to our staff in-store if you’re unsure which option suits your situation.

Bathing: lorikeets genuinely enjoy bathing and benefit from it. Offer a shallow bathing dish or a light misting spray a few times a week to help keep feathers in good condition.

Visual & Health Checks

Know what’s normal for your bird so you can spot when something’s off. A healthy lorikeet is alert, active, perches confidently on both feet, and has clean, smooth feathers with clear eyes and nares. A bird sitting fluffed up on the cage floor, showing faeces around the vent, or seeming generally flat is a bad sign and worth monitoring closely. Over the counter broad spectrum medication is available in-store for minor presentations, and our staff can point you to a vet if it looks like more than that. Get familiar with your bird’s normal droppings so you notice quickly if anything changes.

Sexing

Lorikeets are monomorphic, meaning males and females look the same to the eye. The only reliable ways to determine sex are DNA testing or surgical sexing by a vet. Birdsville does not identify or guarantee sex at the point of sale.

Record Keeping

Weigh your lorikeet on a digital scale every week or two and jot the number down, since weight loss is often the first sign of illness, well before a bird looks visibly unwell. It’s also worth keeping a simple record of worming and mite/lice spray dates, moult timing, and any vet visits, so you’ve got a clear history to hand over if you ever need to see a vet.

Holiday Care

Heading away for a night or two? Fill the dry mix dish generously and make sure water is topped right up before you leave, since dry food holds up far better than wet mix if nobody’s around to replace it. Try to line up a friend, neighbour or pet sitter to pop in and check on your bird each day regardless, as lorikeets are sociable enough that going without any company for more than a day or two starts to take a toll.

Transportation

A lorikeet should only ever travel in a purpose-built carry cage, escape-proof and with enough airflow to keep it comfortable for the length of the trip. Keep the journey as brief as you can, steer clear of very hot or cold conditions, and don’t ever leave your bird sitting in a parked car, not even for a couple of minutes, since car interiors heat up or cool down far faster than most people expect. If you don’t already have a suitable carry cage, we stock them in-store.

Compatibility with Other Animals

Lorikeets are naturally territorial and can be genuinely aggressive toward other birds, including other lorikeet species, so they’re not a good match for a shared aviary with smaller or gentler birds. Their sharp beak and confident temperament can cause real injury in a mixed setup. Most lorikeets do best kept alone with plenty of owner interaction, or paired with one bonded lorikeet of their own kind. Cats and dogs should never be left alone with a lorikeet outside its cage, however placid they normally seem, since instinct can take over in an instant.

Boarding

Boarding is available through Petsville Hotel at petsvillehotel.com. Petsville Hotel is a separate boarding business to Birdsville, so book directly with them ahead of your trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a licence to keep a pet lorikeet in NSW?

No. Rainbow Lorikeets are one of the native bird species NSW’s Biodiversity Conservation Act exempts from licensing, so you can buy and keep one without applying for a permit. Just make sure your lorikeet has come from a legitimate source like Birdsville, since wild-caught native birds are illegal to keep or sell.

Can lorikeets eat the same seed mix as other parrots?

No. Lorikeets are nectar feeders, not seed eaters, so a standard parrot seed mix will not meet their needs and can actually make them unwell over time. They need a specific lorikeet nectar mix, available wet or dry, with dry mix left out fresh daily once your bird is weaned onto it.

Are lorikeets good pets for beginners?

They can be, but they suit a committed beginner more than someone wanting a low-maintenance bird. Lorikeets are high energy, need a large cage, fresh food daily, and plenty of toys and interaction to stay happy. They can also be nippy, especially if under-stimulated, so daily handling and training from a young age make a real difference.

Can I keep just one lorikeet, or should I get two?

A single lorikeet can do very well as long as you can give it several hours of attention and out-of-cage time every day, since it will bond closely with you instead of another bird. If you are away from home a lot, a bonded pair keeps each other company and stays just as entertaining to watch.

How long do lorikeets live?

With good diet, housing and regular vet checks, lorikeets typically live 15 to 30 years, and some individuals reach even longer. That is a genuine multi-decade commitment, closer to owning a dog than a smaller pet, so it is worth thinking through your long-term living situation before bringing one home.

Why does my lorikeet’s poo look so runny?

Lorikeets naturally have wetter, runnier droppings than seed-eating parrots because of their liquid nectar diet, so this on its own is not automatically a sign of illness. A diet too high in sugar makes it worse, so switching to a quality low-sugar lorikeet mix usually helps. See a vet if it is paired with lethargy or appetite loss.

 

Come see us in-store if you have any concerns or questions, and feel free to bring your bird in for us to check over.

If you’re ready to welcome one into your home, take a look at our Lorikeets for Sale Sydney page or drop into Birdsville at 684 Botany Road, Alexandria NSW 2015 to meet them in person. Thinking about a different companion bird as well? Our How to Care for Your New Parrot guide covers what that involves too.