Ask Lafeber

Yes, you may need to separate these birds.  If you haven’t had them DNA tested to see if indeed both birds are male, I suggest doing that right away, so you know what you’re dealing with.  Even if they are both males, birds will bond with one another in a way that will replicate breeding behavior.  If you have mirrors or anything in the cage like a sleeping sack, they can crawl into to find darkness, it  will trigger nesting behavior regardless of the gender of both birds.   Conures are cavity nesters and will seek out dark and enclosed places to start breeding and nesting behavior.  If you have anything like this in their cage, I suggest removing it immediately.

Also, I would never allow any bird on my shoulder or be at face level so they could bite my lip or especially my eye!  As you have found out, this can be dangerous.  I used to breed Green Cheek Conures, and I can tell you they fear nothing!  Even if they are not being hormonal.   I used to breed Conures, Amazons, and Macaws.  Somehow my little conures got out of their cage and were small enough to squeeze through the bars of my Scarlet Macaws cage.  When I got home my macaws were screaming like something was trying to kill them.  When I ran to my bird room my two little conures were strutting back and forth the macaw’s main perch and my macaws were huddled in a corner of their cage screaming.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Getting them out of there was quite a challenge. Again, my suggestions are to remove anything in the cage that will trigger hormonal behavior right away!  Also, get a DNA test done to determine what gender both birds are.  Then you will have a clearer picture of what is going on.  It’s also important to know when birds pair up they become very protective of their mate.  If they feel they are in danger, they will bite that mate to get them to fly out of harm’s way.  If they are inside of a cage, the other one cannot fly away so the attacker will keep attacking.  Once they bond with a mate, their allegiance is to that mate and is no longer as strong with the owner as it once was.  Remember they spend 24 hours a day together and only a small part of their day with their owner.

At this point I would not rehoming one of them because they are obviously very bonded with one another, and they could both go into deep mourning. That is only my personal opinion, but that would be my last resort.  It comes down to 3 choices now.  Either leave them in the same cage and accept the fact it will most likely change their relationship with you.  Or put them in separate cages that are close together so they can interact separately.  However, it may cause them a little stress, and they could develop some behavioral problems like screaming or feather picking. The third option would be to only allow them out to play together under strict supervision.  Even then you may have a difficult time getting them back into their separate cages again.

If you do get DNA sexing done and you have a male and female, the female may start laying eggs and then you may be faced with the decision of what to do with the eggs.  If you need guidance on that, feel free to reach back out and I’m happy to walk you through those options.