Rainbow Lories are the most brilliantly coloured parrots anybody keeps and among the most entertaining - acrobatic, fearless, endlessly busy birds that bathe several times a day and sleep on their backs. They also come with one specific consequence that decides whether anybody can live with one, and it is better said plainly at the top than discovered at home.
The droppings
Lories live on nectar and pollen, so their diet is largely liquid and their droppings are liquid with it - and they fire them, several feet, away from the perch. This is not a housekeeping detail. It is the single reason most Rainbow Lories are rehomed. Keepers manage it with an enclosed or easily washable area, acrylic panels, and a daily cleaning routine that does not get skipped. Anybody who will resent that routine in year two should buy a different bird.
The diet is specific
A commercial nectar or lory powder, fresh fruit and some vegetables. Lories cannot be fed on a parrot seed or pellet diet - it does not suit their digestive system and it causes long-term damage. The food is not difficult and it is not optional, so ask the breeder exactly what they feed and copy it.
No powder down at all
Here is the part nobody mentions. Lories produce no powder down whatsoever, which makes them one of the better choices for a household with asthma or a dust allergy - exactly the households that have had to rule out cockatoos, cockatiels and greys. The cleaning is different, not worse, and for some families it is the trade that makes keeping a parrot possible.
Noise
Loud and shrill, with a chattering, screeching voice they use all day rather than in bursts. Not a flat bird.
Temperament
Outstanding, if you like a bird with no sense of its own size. Rainbows are bold, physical, affectionate and comic, they learn tricks readily, and they talk a little in a small clear voice. They are also nippy in excitement and they are one of the few parrots that will take on a larger bird without hesitating - so they are best kept as the only parrot or well separated.
Living with one
Fifteen to twenty-five years. A long cage rather than a tall one, a bath available daily, and a cleaning setup designed in rather than improvised.
Buying one
Ask exactly what the bird is fed and get the brand. Ask to see the setup the breeder keeps them in, because it will tell you more about what you are taking on than any description. Ask when it weaned and about disease testing. The breeders listed on this page raise Rainbow Lories and can be contacted directly through the site.