Hi, I am new to the forum and in desperate need of some advice from more experienced parrot owners. I have two crimson belly conures, they are 10 month old siblings who as far as I can tell are fairly pair bonded (feeding each other, grooming, mating etc). In the six months I've had them I've unfortunately realised I just don't have the experience I need to do a good job of knowing what they need, having only had budgies and tiels before. There's been various behavioural issues that have been slowly improving, but they always have very tatty tails where they have shredded the vanes, which I thought might be from boredom. They also playfight a lot, much more than I'm used to with budgies, which I assumed was contributing to the tattiness. Recently Girl has had a little bald spot on her head which has slowly grown, and today Boy has obviously picked at it so much it's formed a scab at least 3mm across. They have had one fight that resulted in a bitten toe (Girl's, though she is normally the more bossy and dominant one), but otherwise seem to get along mostly.
Is there anything I can do to discourage Boy from picking at Girl aside from splitting them up? I'm running on the assumption it's a mixture of boredom and spring hormones, but tbh I know now I really am out of my depth with conures. They have a diet of a seed mix and lots of fresh fruit and veg which they prefer, and a UV lamp. They have 3 hours out of cage time 4 days a week, and 5 hours the other 3, but it definitely isn't enough on the 4 days I work, unfortunately. Boy especially gets bored and screamy during the day, even with lots of different toys. The cage is 54 x 85 cm, though I'm trying to get hold of a cage about 2x the size with a divider to give them some time out from each other.
I feel terrible that I just don't know how I can improve their quality of life, aside from trying to rehome them with someone with more experience and who can give them more attention during the day, though that would be pretty heart breaking. Any advice, even just generally, would be very welcome.
Is there anything I can do to discourage Boy from picking at Girl aside from splitting them up? I'm running on the assumption it's a mixture of boredom and spring hormones, but tbh I know now I really am out of my depth with conures. They have a diet of a seed mix and lots of fresh fruit and veg which they prefer, and a UV lamp. They have 3 hours out of cage time 4 days a week, and 5 hours the other 3, but it definitely isn't enough on the 4 days I work, unfortunately. Boy especially gets bored and screamy during the day, even with lots of different toys. The cage is 54 x 85 cm, though I'm trying to get hold of a cage about 2x the size with a divider to give them some time out from each other.
I feel terrible that I just don't know how I can improve their quality of life, aside from trying to rehome them with someone with more experience and who can give them more attention during the day, though that would be pretty heart breaking. Any advice, even just generally, would be very welcome.