Hugo And Karla

After our heartbreaking loss of Lorrie I did a bit of searching to get another bird but ended up buying an established breeding pair from a Breeder on the south of Brisbane. I built a suspended aviary for them, 5 metres long x 1.5 metres wide x 1 metre high, so they have plenty of room to stretch their wings. Even though they will tolerate your close presence most times, you can not touch them unless you want a painful bite. They will on most occasions draw blood if they connect with you. They both seem to accept me but the male (Hugo) can some times be very protective of the area around the nesting box or around the food, I have lost count on how many times he has bitten me. He will actually chase me away. Karla, the female, has only bitten me once and that was when I was first transferring them into their new home. They both obviously love each other very much by their preening, kissing, snuggling and of course mating. If they are both out (of the nest box) Hugo will not let you get too close to Karla and will stand up to you to protect her. When Karla is out by herself she will nearly let you touch her ( have not succeeded to date - she does bite). Both will listen and converse with you in their own way, I always know when they want some thing by the way they call out to me, usually they want new food or the ants have gotten into their food, which seems to be a major problem some times - they are extremely intelligent. They both love bathing and have a large bowl in the aviary with fresh water for their bathing needs. The local wild Rainbows will come down and visit them with much screeching of displeasure from Hugo. He will get into his little walk (crouches and walks and hops toward the offender), he will either do a wing whirr or he will bob up and down. In most cases he will only bob up and down if he wants to mate or declares his mate status. Karla will also bob up and down which she does very fast and is quite amazing to see, especially when both are doing it at the same time. They are definitely not shy about mating and my presence some times seems to initiate it. Karla will swing her self on a branch, upside down, like a swing, for a couple of times a day which is quite amusing to watch. We feed them fresh fruit and vegetables every morning and also are given what they call wet mix and a dry mix (lorikeets are nectar feeders) and of course a source of fresh water other than what they bath in. Since the time that I have had them they have had only two successful hatches. On the third hatching the babies where dead and on the fourth hatching the eggs went missing, suspecting one of them may have gotten into a bad habit of eating the eggs. They could also be too old as I didn't ask the age of the birds when I purchased them. Either way I will still care for them as they can not be released into the wild because of their lack of experience with predators. I have come to cherish them as much as any other pet I have had and I will continue to enjoy their aerobatic antics.

One more thing - they hate cameras for some reason, so it is very hard to get a good photo as they always go and hide in their nesting box if they see me with a camera in their aviary.




		Karla


	Karla

Karla Burgess

2000? - 04/02/2016

Cared for - 10/2004 - 04/02/2016

Mother of Sasha & Pedro

I was intending to take her to the vet but I found her after sunset on the bottom of the Avery in a corner

I took her inside and placed her in a cage with food and warmth. and she was able to perch ok on her one good foot, and was eating well the next morning

But later on in the day she became extremely ill and she needed immediate attention.

I was holding her in my arms wrapped up, and rang the vet to tell them that I was bringing her straight in.

I just put the phone down, turned to go out, she gave one big last breath, sighed and died in my arms

He is alone in the Avery now and will be missing his life time mate and companion....this quite heartbreaking.