2 Budgies fighting, and behaviour

Question
I have 2 budgies about 8 months old living in one cage. One budgie has a blue cere and the other has a purple cere, so that's one male and one female? They have plenty of colourful toys to play with and their cage is big enough. They are very lively and like to eat.
However when they eat, they look like they are fighting over who gets the food first. One bird starts eating, and the other pecks the bird, then they both bite eachother wildly with their wings fluttering and their beaks wide open. It can look rather violent. Are they fighting? Or would you say that it is only affection?
This also happens when the bigger bird wants to have a certain area to himself; He just quickly pecks the other bird to get it to go away. The smaller bird just screeches in fear and moves to another area.
Sometimes the bigger bird bobs his head around very awkwardly.
Another budgie behaviour that has been bothering me is that they keep using their beaks to pick at their feathers. They often do this at the same time, making it look like a routine dance. Feathers occasionally come out because of this, but they mainly keep picking at their feathers. I heard that they might be bored, but I don't think that is the case.
Also, what is it supposed to sound like when the budgies are sneezing/coughing? Sometimes they do make weird noises, but I'm not sure. What does preening look like?

Answer
Hello Dianne,


Those are some good questions, soem of my past budgies which were kept in a large group cage did the same thing they are fighting and if the cage is too small or it happens too offen there can be bllod shed/death to one or both birds, if the cage is fair sized and they can get away from each other every now and then, then they should do ok but if they are fighting quite offen even if the cage is fairly large I'd separate them before it gets rough. Birds run there feathers through there beaks rutinley this is how they clean them and yes sometimes feathers do come out this is because they are loose, if you see the birds pulling out there feathers then they are feather plucking whichis caused by bordem but with lots of toys and another bird to at lest talk to they will be fine I've never had a budgie do that before, i think its most comman in single birds not given alot of attention. Well if ther 8 months old and ones cere is blue and ones cere is purple they may very well be both males, purple, blue and sometimes even pink are males, it depends on the color of the bird... if you could tell me what color they are I may be able to hell p yuo out more also is the blue a deep bluie? what about the purple is it dark or light? kinda brown? birds sneeze all the time, you'll know when they sneeze its kind of like a "tiff" sound, its normaly "tiff tiff" in a row, I've never heard a bird cough before so can't help with that. To pervent bordem and to offer variety its nice to take them out of there cage(s) every few days if not daily for at lest a half hour, a bird play stand works wonders and is awsome if you want to spoil them as you can load it up with toys, I reccomend clipping there wings or getting them clipped before taking them out of cage thou as they will go everywhere. I hope I've been of some help if you have any more questions feel free to ask, I'm more then happy to help.