I have 2 conures which are around 1 year as of now. Initially they both were very friendly amongst them and with my family. Recently it’s been around 15-20 days now the male conure is bit aggressive towards the female and now towards the family members also. We usually keep them interactive with toys inside and outside the cage. I guess the male is aggressive due to Hormones , I am planning to keep them in separate cage but i am worried if they become sad or get depressed if they are seperated and if I seperate them for how many days should i seperate them.
Answer:
Hi,
If you want them to remain tame, you should keep them in separate cages permanently. If these birds are related, they definitely should not be sharing a cage! If you are not sure, but you bought them from the same place, you have to assume they are related and never plan to breed them. Also, both birds are much too young to breed. They may be starting to get hormonal, but they are not fully mature until around 3 years old for the smaller conure species, and 5 years old for the larger species. If you keep these two together, it could trigger egg laying in the female. Again, while she might be capable of laying eggs right now, she isn’t physically or emotionally ready. She would be at a high rate of becoming egg bound and dying. Even if you have no plans of breeding your birds, a male & female of any species should not share a cage until they are old enough to breed. And again, if you want your birds to continue to be pets, keep them separated. You can allow some supervised interaction when they are out of the cage, but limit this, and don’t allow it right now while the male is exhibiting hormonal behavior. He is being aggressive towards the female because he is hormonal and she is not ready to breed. The aggression could escalate to the point that he hurts her. He should settle down once they aren’t together all the time, but birds get hormonal with or without another bird being around. You can try to reduce the behavior by not allowing him to roam freely, never pet him below the neck, don’t let him explore dark places, small areas – this mimics searching for a nest. With warmer weather, hormones tend to kick in, so avoiding other triggers can help. We do have webinars that address hormones and parrots, that you may want to check out:
