Optimal Housing Set up for Lories and Lorikeets.
When planning the location of an aviary or cage housing lories / lorikeets, it should be kept in mind that these are medium-noisy parrots whose shrill calls may annoy nearby neighbors.
Lories and Lorikeets: Overview (Naming, Range and Description)
Aviaries:
Spacious, long flights are preferred, with plenty of natural (non-toxic) vegetation. Breeding pairs need to be kept singly or at least during the breeding season, breeding pairs need to be kept in separate flights.
Colony keeping is possible outside the breeding season. They need to be protected from low temperatures and draughts – even after acclimatization.
A roosting box should be available at all times (including outside the breeding season).
Cages:
Lories are very active birds and require large cages. The minimum cage size for a single lory should be 36″ H x 48″ L x 24″ W or to accommodate a pair the cage dimensions needs to be, at a minimum, 36″ H x 60″ L x 36″ W.
One has to remember that we need room for the many toys that lories so cherish, perches, food / water dishes, maybe a “birdy tent” — as well as providing sufficient space for them to move around, exercise their wings. etc.
Care should be taken in cage design and placement since the birds have a tendency to squirt their waste matter, which is fairly liquid, behind them with some force.
It is not recommended to place the cage behind a delicately decorated wall and on unprotected carpet. Easy-care flooring is recommended, as well as a washable wall.
An acrylic panel custom-cut and placed over the wall would be a great way to protect it. The acrylic panel can easily be taken outside and hosed down.
There are acrylic cages available, but lories love to climb and scramble about, so a standard, high quality powder coated cage is a better choice – as large as the space you have will allow.
Recommendations
In an outdoor aviary they are the easiest birds to maintain, as all of their waste can simply be hosed away, no seed hulls to sweep up or sticky, green and white droppings running down the side of the cage to scrub off.
Please read the article by Kathy Gerst, who was able to Potty-train her Red Lory.
A word of caution about placing lories in mixed-species aviaries. Some lories can be very aggressive toward other birds, while others will do just fine mingling with others. The Chattering Lories in particular have a reputation for causing injury to other lories in their environment; and may even go as far as killing them.
Other Relevant Web Resources
- Photos of the Different Lory Species for Identification … Listing of Species
- Distribution Maps of Lories and Lorikeets
- Lories and Lorikeets in Aviculture
- Feeding and Housing Your Lories and Lorikeets
- Diseases of Lories / Lorikeets and Health Care Program
- Special Challenges of Lories and Lorikeets: Training and Behavioral Guidance
