Separating lovebirds for health reasons

[CanadianMommyx2]

I have two peach faced love birds. My male is just over 2 years old and my female is just over a year old. At the beginning of August they laid their first clutch of eggs. She laid 8 eggs in total. None hatched. I hoped she wouldn't lay more so I left the eggs with them. About a month after laying the first set, she started laying more even though there were still infertile eggs in the nest. I removed the old eggs and she laid 6 new eggs. She was sitting on the eggs and the male was feeding her. I noticed she would sometimes pick on him, but nothing to severe. We went away for 10 days and had a friend looking after them. When we came home we noticed that he was missing most of his tail, a lot of feathers around the back of his neck and on his back. He is also very thin. We notice she is being mean to him and when he goes to eat she chases him from the dishes. When he does get to eat he immediately regurgitates for her. I checked these eggs and they are not fertile. For his health I moved him today to a separate cage, took the eggs away from her, and removed her nesting box.
I moved the male to my daughter's room and kept the female in the living room. Does anyone have any ideas on how to nurse my male back to health? I feed pellets, seed, egg, and millet. He will not eat fruits or veggies no matter how hard I try to get him to eat them. Is there anything behavioural I should watch for now that they are separate? So far he is quite happy and is already rebonding with my daughter and I. The female seems to be looking for him, but she is eating.

 

[SilverSage]

Good idea to remove him and the box. Please don't replace the box even if they get put together again. Try offering them both whole leaves of greens, like big collard green leaves, etc. often birds who won't touch chop still love shredding big leaves. Give him time and love, you are doing the right thing. Once he gains his weight back I would stop feeding millet, it's already I. Their seed mix and is not very nutritious at all.

 

[CanadianMommyx2]

Thanks! We only gave them the box in the first place because she started laying eggs. I don't want them to breed. I really hoped having eggs in the nest would stop them, I guess not. I will try giving them whole leaves.

 

[SilverSage]

It won't be any worse for her to lay them on the floor, and it might help her get over it faster. The box will only ever stimulate that kind of thing. You are doing good, just keep it up