“No matter how high a bird flies, it has to come down for
food.”
I got interested in the lories about 9 years ago when I visited my
brother in Brisbane Australia. The lories were so fun because of their
playfulness and bright unusual colors. In Australia we had tons of rainbows land
on us at one of the lory outdoor exhibits.
They all knew when feeding time was. You can see this at the zoos
here, or in your walk in aviary. There are so many different types lories
available now.
I have found that the hardest part of keeping lories is their
unique diet. They are not seed eating parrots. They cannot digest seed, so a
different diet must be supplied. I discovered they need more than just a fruit
smoothie to thrive.
I like most, believed that a variety of different fruits in a
smoothie was an adequate diet for them-it was good for me.... I have found
they need more than fruit to live a long healthy life. The lory powder
& nectar needs to have ALL nutrients, minerals and vitamins necessary, so
years down the road you do not have liver and other problems show up. We
are responsible for the lories future.
We have some Aussie breeders helping us formulate products, and
some old timers here. We want to keep improving our product, and appreciate any
ideas. We have a couple zoo nutritionists also helping with our products, and if
any changes are made they will be retested and posted on this
site.
Now the important facts - I can not stress enough - Look at
the ingredients on your lory food. There are a lot of products out there
that have ingredients that are good for parrots, but not lories. Some of the
products are 20 year old recipes that are not current with our knowledge today.
Soy Flour is now proven to be a useless product for lories, mammals and humans.
It is too hard for them to digest. Low Iron and low vitamin A are important.
Example of bad ingredients-powdered pineapple, citrus, soy
flour.
Example of an insufficient diet are beaks and toenails growing
excessively long on younger birds, reproduction decreasing, and dull
coloring.This can be fixed with a good diet, it is not a permanent condition as
I had thought.
Blessings Bird Food