Young budgie humping everything

[crackfox]

Hi, we've had our male for 6 weeks now and he's super comfortable with us. I think he's at least 4 months old now but he does still have faint head bars down to his cere. Over the last week he's started to hump everything in his cage and even us. We discourage it when that happens as we really don't want him to think of us as his mates. He started being extra chirpy and bobbing his head at me which I read somewhere is flirting behaviour. Just wondering if it's normal at his age for hormones to start. He still looks like a baby. Is this a phase or should we be trying to encourage him out of this behaviour? I don't mind him doing it in his cage, I think it's pretty funny, especially as he's just started to talk and says "give us a kiss" during it.

[Hezz]

As long as you remove yourself from the agenda, let him get on with it and get it out of his system. Some budgies can be over-sexed and drive their birdy companions nuts.

In a good season, budgies can begin to breed almost as soon as they leave the nest, to built the population up while the feed is plentiful giving the species the best chance of making it through prolonged drought. That's not to say that we should encourage it, or that they are even very good at it, after all they are only babies themselves - it's like a 13yo having a baby - physically capable but mentally not mature enough.

[blue48]

My 1 year old boy has calmed down a bit now, but he went through a phase at about that age of humping his perch and his toys. Luckily he wasn't attracted to me .. not in that way

[crackfox]

I'm pleased to hear it's not unusual for his age. I've noticed he gets particularly amorous at night with us. He's a lone budgie but has human company all day. He does have two mirrors in his cage which he chatters into late into the night nowadays. He'd usually be covered around 10pm but lately is bouncing around until midnight and if he is covered when he's in that mood, he wont go to sleep when he knows people are still up. My mum is retired so his sleep schedule is pretty random but we make sure he gets at least 10 hours of darkness from the time he goes to sleep. I know mirrors can be problematic and i'm keeping an eye on it. He doesn't feed it or hump it and he still wants to come out of his cage to spend time with us so i don't think he's overly attached to them. I think at this point he knows we don't like the humping on us, he's started to do it much more subtly, as if he's hoping we don't notice most of the time. He's very sneaky.

[Hezz]

As long as he doesn't get too attached to his mirrors - he could make himself ill if he feeds the mirror, mirror obviously doesn't appreciate his offering and doesn't gobble up its free meal, the regurg sits there and the budgie will often re-eat what it has regurgitated. That's when you can have problems, but it sounds like your guy is only humping. If he does get over-ambitious he may rub his nether regions a bit raw so just keep an eye on that.