Lovebirds fighting?

[Aya&Ponzu]

Hi
So recently, my two lovebirds have started fighting each other inside and outside the cage and I'm starting to get a bit worried. They've been housed together for about a year now and obviously they've had the occasional anger bouts but they would end up cuddling and preening each other straight after. One of them is a confirmed female and the other one, although he hasn't been blood tested, is thought to be a male by an avian vet. It only started recently and they had never fought outside the cage before but now, they seem to be getting more irritated by each other especially when it comes to food. They never fought over food before but both have started acting strangely.
when i came home today, and i was watching them for a bit, they suddenly started fighting randomly (i wasn't feeding them or giving them anything to fight over) and ended up tussling on the cage floor - wings flapping and screeching. I managed to intervene and I have a smaller cage for vet trips so I decided to seperate them for the night.
The female used to be super hormonal (especially towards me) and now that she's back to being calm to me and not aggressive at all, I thought things would be fine now.
Does anyone know why this might be happening and things that I may need to change or be careful of? Thanks

 

[Zara]

I'm sorry that is happening.

I had a bit of a to do with one of my pairs earlier in January, my male got an injury that the vet couldn't determine whether it was dermatitis or a wound from his mate but I suspect that she did it (and he made it worse by picking). She was super hormonal and it was just an awful few months. I separated them while he healed and then I struggled pairing them back up again, but eventually things seemed ok until she got more hormonal, I tried a hormone shot for her (to no avail), and in the end resorted to giving her a bowl to lay some eggs in. After incubating her dummy eggs for 3 weeks, she snapped back to her usual self and so far so good.

I have two bowls for all my pairs now just to err on the safe side. I would recommend two bowls to anyone with a pair (one on one side of the cage, and the other as far away as possible).

When hormonal it is worse for bickering and fighting. You could try allowing more out of cage time, as well as more foraging and new toys to try and keep their minds entertained.

What is your cage size? Smaller cages can encourage bickering and squabbles.

I am not sure what else to try, but just take your time reintroducing until you feel confident that they are no longer a danger to each other.

 

[Aya&Ponzu]

I'm sorry that is happening.

I had a bit of a to do with one of my pairs earlier in January, my male got an injury that the vet couldn't determine whether it was dermatitis or a wound from his mate but I suspect that she did it (and he made it worse by picking). She was super hormonal and it was just an awful few months. I separated them while he healed and then I struggled pairing them back up again, but eventually things seemed ok until she got more hormonal, I tried a hormone shot for her (to no avail), and in the end resorted to giving her a bowl to lay some eggs in. After incubating her dummy eggs for 3 weeks, she snapped back to her usual self and so far so good.

I have two bowls for all my pairs now just to err on the safe side. I would recommend two bowls to anyone with a pair (one on one side of the cage, and the other as far away as possible).

When hormonal it is worse for bickering and fighting. You could try allowing more out of cage time, as well as more foraging and new toys to try and keep their minds entertained.

What is your cage size? Smaller cages can encourage bickering and squabbles.

I am not sure what else to try, but just take your time reintroducing until you feel confident that they are no longer a danger to each other.

Their cage is quite big for lovebirds since it is meant originally for cockatoos so I'm not too worried about that part.
I've ordered some new foraging toys for them and I'll try and keep them out for longer if I can!
Thank you so much, this helped a lot

 

[Zara]

I hope the phase will pass and they can be reunited