Hi,
When you grab a bird, it makes them feel like a predator is trying to catch them. But grabbing a bird that is already tame usually doesn’t cause a big shift in behavior. The bird might be a bit wary but usually will be fine after a while. Your main problem is having two birds together – assuming they are sharing a cage. When they are young, they will still relate to you because young birds interact with flock members. But as they get older, they end up choosing a mate and stop interacting with the other flock members. Only the mate is allowed to have physical contact for the most part. It sounds more like your birds are bonding with each other, and when this happens, they eventually lose interest in human contact. They become more and more wild. You can try separating them so you can work with one bird at a time. As long as you leave them together, they will most likely get less and less tame and then stop being tame at all. This is just instinctual behavior. You have to remember these are an exotic pet, so all of their behavior is related to their wild instinct. They become tame because of a lack of having a bird mate, so when you provide another bird, even it is the same sex, they tend to bond and stop having contact with you.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
