Nectar feeders, brushes and bottles: lorikeet-specific equipment
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
Accessories designed for granivorous budgerigars and canaries do not always suit a lorikeet fed on nectar. Our general comparison of bird water bottles, bowls and fountains is still useful for drinking water, but nectar calls for separate equipment.
Contents · 6 sections
The bowl, still necessary but worth rethinking
A stainless-steel or ceramic bowl, easy to take apart and dishwasher-safe, remains the basic way to present fresh nectar. Favour a model with high sides that narrow towards the top, which limits feather contact and reduces the risk of a soaked plumage during feeding — a lorikeet that dunks its head into a wide, shallow bowl often ends up caked in dried nectar.
Bulk dispensers, a path backed by research
A study published in 2026 by Pang, Man and Fernandez in Veterinary Medicine and Science tested bulk nectar dispensers — a small reservoir accessed through an opening — against a plain bowl, in 45 rainbow lorikeets (see the study, doi 10.1002/vms3.71175). The birds turned to this device en masse when it was offered alongside the bowl, a shift not seen in a granivorous control species. This kind of dispenser, used alongside the bowl rather than replacing it, is also a foraging idea covered in our article on lorikeet foraging.
Brushes and bottle brushes, an everyday essential
Dried nectar sticks to surfaces and hardens fast. A small dedicated brush, kept solely for lorikeet equipment and never used on the cage itself, makes the daily cleaning of bowls and dispensers covered in our article on lorikeet cage hygiene much easier. A thin bottle brush reaches inside bulk dispensers, which are often narrower than a plain bowl.
What to avoid
Raw, porous wooden feeders trap sugar and fermented residue even with regular cleaning; always favour stainless steel, glass or smooth food-grade plastic. Also avoid dispensers built for seed, whose internal mechanisms are a poor match for liquid and jam up quickly.
In practice
Keep at least two sets of bowls to rotate while one is being cleaned, and replace any cracked or scratched accessory, which becomes harder to disinfect over time. The rest of our accessory picks are under bird accessories.
Frequently asked questions
Can an ordinary water bottle be used for nectar?
It is not recommended: nectar is more viscous and clogs the bottle mechanism more easily, on top of being harder to clean inside.
Does nectar equipment need a different disinfecting routine from the rest of the cage?
The same bird-safe product works, but the frequency needs to be daily for nectar equipment, against a weekly rhythm for the rest.
In our shop, for this use: Wooden plug board, puzzle toy for parrots (€19.90) · the whole shop
This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Birds universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.