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So You've Just Been Bitten By Your Pet Lorikeet...
It's not hard to see the attractiveness of lorikeets to the potential bird owner, as they are a riot of colour, are always the most active and interesting birds in a group and respond readily to human contact. Yet these same birds that play so amusingly, and entertain so much, are probably the most complex in personality of all Australian birds. They can be playing with you one minute, and then give you the mother of all bites, the next. Why do they do this is what I will try to answer in this article, but it wont be a simple, cut and dried answer because lorikeets are anything but straight forward.
I often wonder how many people have been lost to aviculture as a result of being bitten, and bitten hard, by their new pet lorikeet. Make no mistake, they may be a small bird but they can inflict a very painful bite. Realize something at this stage, if you are going to have a pet lorikeet then you are going to be bitten, just how hard and how often will depend on your ability to "read" your bird. If he is charging at you full speed with his head down and pupils dilating, then watch out, you are about to be bitten. On the other hand if he is hopping around on two feet with his head up, then most likely he wants to play. You must learn to "read" the signs to avoid the bites. Don't ever think he bit you for no reason, there is always a reason and he knows what it is, so it's up to you to be a bit more "tuned in" to your birds habits to work out why, so as to avoid a repetition.
Playing
Pet lorikeets love to play. Their energy and enthusiasm is seemingly boundless. No matter when you take them from their cage they are ready and willing to engage in all sorts of activities with you. But they have one small problem; they become quite ‘hyper’ with all the playing and activity. It is like a build up of adrenaline, or the lorikeet equivalent, within them. They play so hard and rough (this is how they like it) that this energy seems to build up inside them until they are almost fit to burst. They have to release this pent up tension, or whatever, inside of them, so they bite you! There is no malice intended, it's just a lorikeets way of coming ’down’ from this built up ‘high’. Understand this and you will go a long way towards avoiding unpleasant confrontations with your bird.
Teasing
This is pretty basic, if you deliberately tease your bird you are asking to be bitten. If you give your bird something to play with and try and take it away from him you are teasing him and he will bite you. If you play tug-o-war with a pen with him, and don't let him win, then you are teasing him and deserve to be bitten. If you do anything that he dislikes, and you should know your birds likes and dislikes, he will bite you. For example: Don't try to interfere with him in any way while he's bathing or he will draw blood. Don't touch his food while he is eating, or you will regret it. ‘Crunching’ up newspaper near my Rainbow will guarantee I get bitten, so I don't do it. ‘Crunching’ up a plastic shopping bag near him sends him psycho, so this is definitely a no-no! Get to know your bird and avoid the bites, it will be easier on him and less painful on you.
Invading
This is also fairly straightforward. His cage is his. This is his space. If you put your hand inside, you are invading his territory and risk being bitten. This is because lorikeets are very territorial and will defend to the death, their habitat. When I let my bird out of his cage, I open the door, put my hand near the entrance and call him out. He will race over and jump on my hand and come out. I never get bitten doing it this way. If I were to put my hand inside and try and grab him, it's bleeding time!
Grabbing
Lorikeets don't like to have a hand encircle them. Grab them this way and they will struggle, fight and bite like crazy and you will let go! It takes a very special bird and a very special relationship for a lorikeet to allow someone to hold him this way. My wife has it with out bird, but she is the only one. The easiest and safest way is to offer your hand or arm and let them come to you. Go for the aggressive grab and you will bleed.
Transferred Aggression
I have learnt this from careful observation of my bird when getting bitten, and yes, it was a painful path of discovery. All birds have favourites. Our bird was given to me as a Christmas present. He was my bird, however over the next few months he showed a distinct preference for my wife. Now there is nothing unusual in this. Eventually he became my wife's bird (his choice) to the point where she can do absolutely anything with him, break all the rules. She can encircle him with her hand, pick him up by his tail or grab his tail and pull him backwards, it doesn't matter. As far as he is concerned she is just playing with him and he loves it. We get on fine together, my(!) bird and I, but I wouldn't dare try any of those manoeuvres if I didn't want to bleed. So this is what happens. My wife will be playing with him roughhouse (the way he likes it) and this ‘thing’ will be building up inside of him. Eventually he gets to the point where he must bite someone to release this pent up excitement. He will look around and runs very quickly towards the nearest person to him and bites them, anyone except my wife! You see he loves her so much he won't bite her but he has to bite someone and the closest person is ’it’. To them it is unbelievable! This awful bird has bitten them for nothing. They were not even playing with him and yet he bit them. Who would want a nasty mongrel of a bird like that?
Once again it comes down to understanding your bird. I call it Transferred Aggression, for want of a better name, and it is as real as the bite you will get if you are not prepared for it. When this happens in our home, no one gets bitten now, as we know what is happening and keep out of reach. What he does then is to find some object, anything, and attack it, hurling it to the floor! This has the desired effect and Mr Hyde once again becomes Dr Jekyll.
Perception of Ownership
This is probably the most vague reason of all for being bitten and it is about what he thinks, not you. You see, your lorikeet will bite you because of a perceived wrongdoing by you. It doesn't matter that you know, absolutely without question, that you have done nothing to annoy or anger him, this is not about what you know, it's about what he thinks! If he thinks you are invading his space, he will bite you. It doesn't matter that you only put him on top of that old table to give him a new area of interest, as far as he is concerned you gave him this table and now you are trying to remove him from it. This is his space, his area, his playground, you gave it to him and if you try to remove him from it, or take it away, you risk being bitten.
You are sitting reading the newspaper with your bird with you and he is annoying you by constantly running over the pages and ’squirting’ on the story you are reading. To distract him you give him a plastic pen to play with and he has a ball biting, rolling and throwing the pen about, but tries to take it back and most likely he will bite you. Why? You know you only gave him the loan of the pen for a short period but remember this is not about what you know it is about what he thinks! He thinks you gave him this plaything to keep, so trying to remove it so soon definitely deserves a bite! It's all about the perception of ownership. So why does a lorikeet think this way when most other birds would not even consider the question? It is because they are intelligent. Never make the mistake of underestimating your lorikeets level of intelligence; they are very clever birds.
Those are just two examples of situations where you could get bitten, and not know why. Start applying the ’Perception of Ownership’ rules to situations where you have been bitten and don't know why, and you will go a long way to avoiding a repeat. Just start thinking like a lorikeet and not like a human.
The first four areas I covered, playing, teasing, invading and grabbing are all quite basic and may have been covered before. The last two however, transferred aggression and perceptions of ownership are my own theories based on studying my bird, and others, over a number of years. Initially you may not agree with my conclusions but the next time you get bitten (and with a lorikeet, there is always a next time) think about my suggestions and you may surprise yourself by realising the answer is right here.
So after reading all this you must be thinking right now who would want to own one of these complex, savage, Jekyll & Hyde birds?
Well let me tell you, get yourself a young handraised bird and put plenty of time into him and he will reward you like no other bird I know. I also breed and raise Sun Conures and they are lovely birds, fantastic colours, wonderful temperament (they would never bite you), playful, loving and entertaining and yet comparing Suns to lorikeets is like comparing chalk and cheese. The Lorikeet is much more intelligent than the Sun and this intelligence is what sets them apart from most other birds. Their antics, curiosity, vocabulary (they can be taught to speak very well) and devotion are unlimited and without question, the more time you put into your bird the more you will be rewarded. The companionship and entertainment our lorikeet provides is always rewarding, always expanding, always amazing and we would not part with him for any amount of money.
So do yourself a favour and try a pet lorikeet. The good times far outweigh the bad times from this beautiful product of nature. We almost take for granted our lorikeets, yet in other parts of the world we are envied for having these beautiful birds readily and cheaply available. Overseas visitors are constantly telling us we don't seem to appreciate our Lorikeets. I couldn't agree more.
This article was taken with kind permission from the author Jim Hogan (Sydney, NSW)
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