Moustached Parakeet behavior

[SamBeben]

Hey all!

I have a 2 year old female moustached parakeet. I've had her since she was about 7 weeks old. It's very difficult to find information on their behaviors both in the wild and captivity. One behavior that I would love to know about if anyone has any info is that she taps a lot of stuff. She LOVES to tap on my head and it hurts lol. It seems to be that maybe she's excited? I mainly want to know if it means that she might want something. I'd love to stop the behavior on my head too but the reasoning why she does it is more important to me at the moment. Thank you!

 

[HeatherG]

I don’t know much about moustache parakeets but (and I hope I’m not talking down) I would think that resources devoted to Indian ringneck Ed parakeets would be helpful.

I am guessing this “tapping” is a habit that you may be able to break her from. My Quaker taps of bonks me with his beak if I’ve stopped petting him with enough devotion. But what you are talking about sounds almost like a greeting. ??? Could you get her to tap something besides your head? Would she tap the perch if you tap it with your finger, or your fist if you provide your fist and then reward?

I’m thinking if you make it clear that the taps hurt then she may decide it’s a way to get attention. But if you could replace the tapping maybe that would work better.

Hope someone else has thoughts on this.