The brushes are made of papillae, and are used in removing nectar from flowers. The lory diet is primarily of fruit and nectar in the wild. Lories are all natural clowns. Everything is a possible lory toy. They do use leather.
Lories have a reputation for being messy because their nectar-based diet causes a liquid feces.
Tex feels that lory areas are actually easier to clean, because their waste stays soft and can be mopped up or wiped off, rather than hardening and having to be scraped off. Lories love baths. If you provide a bath, they will usually bathe every day. They soak to the skin, and look like drowned rats after they bathe. If you provide a large enough bath container, they will actually swim across the container.