Scaly-breasted Lorikeet

By Kellie Stewart

(TRICHOGLOSSUS CHOROLEPIDOTUS)
WHICH MEANS AS FOLLOWS

Tricho-greek for hair
glossa-greek for tongue
cholorus-greek for yellow/green
lepidotus-greek for scaly

These little guys are highly underrated in New Zealand aviculture and it makes me wonder why.

• Scalies are easy to breed they are sexually mature at 18 months old.
• Once they start to breed they are very prolific
• They are wonderful pets when handreared
• They have wonderful personalities and normally make good pets for young children.
• They have all the same characteristics as their cousins the rainbow and musk etc but not as boisterous.
• Handreared babies are not difficult to sell.
• Affordable on the pocket
• They come in different colour mutations (green, olive, yellow with the dark eye, and lutino with the red eye.)

This species populates most of Eastern Australia, they are often seen feeding and traveling together with the rainbow lorikeets.

BREEDING

In the wild they breed in the spring and summer. In New Zealand the breeding season starts approximately end of May and carries on through to the end of February, depending on the pair some might breed all year round and stop only to molt. As I mentioned before scalies are very prolific breeders, they may be sexually mature at 18 months but it took my lot until they where nearly 3 before they where successful in filling the eggs. The clutch size 2 and on the odd occasion 3. The eggs are incubated for 22 days, and the chicks eyes are open at 14 days. Babies are in the nest for 8 weeks.

DIET

Wet mix/dry mix assorted fruits and vegetables. Fresh greens, cereal and most importantly pollen, did you know an adult rainbow will have to visit at least 400 flowers to get the intake of pollen they need for the one day? Scalies and lorikeets in general seam to stop eating apples and oranges when they have young in the nest and go more for corn, fresh greens and wet mixes. I presume the apple and citrus in too acidic for the chicks at such a young age, the parents start to eat it again once the chicks reach 5/6 weeks old. When my lories have young I will feed early in the morning and an hour before dusk.

This species of lorikeet is a good bird for a beginner who is interested in keeping one as a pet or breeding. A breeding pair is prices from $220-300 NZ. Handreared pet $140 for a normal green type, slightly more $160 for an Olive and for the rarer Lutino (yellow) or Cinnamon type the price can be from several hundred to over a thousand dollars.

Last modified: 20 December 2001.