male parakeet

Question
My precious Ricky is 1 and a half. He is very spoiled and precious to us a family of four.  I am his caregiver, but he loves my husband more than any of us.  He lunges at me and bites sometimes or nips at my mouth.  He also loves to nip at our necks.  We do not understand why he does this.  We love him so much he has freedom all over the house and all the toys there are.  I love him so and don't understand why he want to attack my mouth and bite the skin.  He tries to fake me out and cuddle and then dives at my mouth. I don't understand.  I do yell because it hurts. lol.   Please help. Thank you soooooo much.

Answer
Dear Maron,
thank you for your question.
It's normal for courting budgies to bite their partner and peck each other's beaks hard. It doesn't hurt them because of all the feathers, but to humans, such a lovebite can be painful, but he won't understand why you don't want him to do it.

I recommend getting Ricky a partner so that he has someone to court with who appreciates his lovebites and who will keep him company if you are not around. He will still be tame, but he will no longer see you as a partner. Budgies, as all parrots, are very social and shouldn't be kept alone. They get bored and lonely when they are alone even for a short time. The new bird will learn the tame behaviour from Ricky, especially when you feed them millet spray or other treats from your hand. It doesn't really matter if you get a female or another male, although a female would be more natural (they don't breed unless you offer nesting boxes, which I don't recommend, breeding them is harder than it sounds).
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer