Ask Lafeber

What are the steps to prepare a nutritious homemade meal for a lorikeet?

“Hello, I live in Turkey and unfortunately, I can’t find proper powdered food for lory parrots. Even if I wanted to bring it from abroad, it’s not possible due to the country’s customs regulations. I want to prepare nectar for it myself with the resources I have available. What can I use?
Right now, I am thinking of mixing pollen, rice-flour baby cereal, organic rice flour, glucose, and a powdered vitamin for birds.”

Hi,

It’s not a good plan to try to make your own diet. Pet bird diets, including lory diets, are formulated by nutrition experts. All you are doing is guessing and if you give too little of a vitamin supplement, the bird won’t get enough nutrition, or too many vitamins can kill a bird. Iron storage disease is a serious issue with Lory species, so you have to be careful of iron in the diet. I would suggest asking whoever you got the bird from. If people are breeding lories there, then they must have a source for a good food. Unfortunately I can’t recommend a home made diet.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda