Ask Lafeber

My male lorrikeet is dominating over food

So i am in the process of trying the same thing, I had a female and then I got a male from a person. They have bonded to some extent. They have started cuddling each other on heads and have started sitting together.
The problem arises when i give food. The male one has a tendency to gobble up everything and he jumps on one and other bowl, i started off giving in two separate bowls and that results in my feamle not getting food and then she gets scared and it gets followed by loud screeches and flapping by both of the birds. After that, they gets separated out and my female sits in the corner if i take her out of the cage and tries to put her back she gets reluctant to go in.

How to tackle this behaviour? I want them to bond but I am afraid this will result in injury or the female getting scared.

P.s. the male is older in age and bigger in size.

Hi Priyadarshi,

Lorys/Lorikeets can have loud, dramatic fights, although most of the time neither bird is getting hurt. If feathers are being pulled out or blood is being drawn, then you have to separate the birds. If these birds are not the same species, then they may not be able to live together in the same cage. There should not be much pf a size difference if they are the same species. However, many lorikeet species have several sub-species, and the size difference between each sub-species can be significant. With the red lories, one sub-species is easily twice the size of the others.

When caging birds together for the first time, you should have as many food and water dishes as there are birds, plus one extra of each. They should be placed in different sides of the cage. So you should have three feeders, and three water sources. You can have food & water together, but you need to have food & water in three different places in the cage, as far apart as possible. He can’t guard all of them, and he will wear himself out trying, and eventually give up. No matter how well birds get along, always have these extra food/water stations because fighting can happen at any time.

Just give them time and see if they learn to get along. But watch for injury and separate them at the first sign. Or if the female is constantly being bullied and intimidated, split them up as this is too stressful for her.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda