Cockatiel male relationships?

Question:
 Hi, I am new here and hoping that someone can help me! I have two wonderful male cockatiels named Captain and Sailor. Captain is the oldest at 3 years old and Sailor is 2. They have been living together in the same cage for 1.5 years. Captain came first and Sailor was acquired as a friend for him (also because I just fell in love with cockatiels!). The only problem is that they have a love/hate relationship. They remind me of a pair of bickering brothers. I try to keep them entertained and busy with plenty of rotating toys and for a few hours a day I play them some music or a nature tape with bird songs. They also get out of cage time regularly. But, they insist on bickering over the same perch space and often pluck the feathers out of each other's heads. So, I am starting to have bald birds! At one point, I seperated them into their own cages thinking maybe they just weren't meant to be buddies. They literally stopped singing and making their chirping noises and just hung around their cages all mopily. As soon as they were together again, they went back to their happy old selves but, the bickering continues! I'd like to note that the bickering has never escalated to fighting or drawing blood. No one gets hurt in the process. They just have birdy arguments. But, strangely enough they seem to like it! Now I am unsure of what to do. They have a large enough cage and plenty of perches so, space is not an issue. They are entertained so, boredom is not the issue. Do I keep them together and deal with the baldness? I've though of getting them a much larger cage and perhaps adding some girlfriends. I thought that might be the problem? I'm unsure though. They might start plucking their girlfriends as well. Suggestions? Ideas? It will be appreciated! Thanks!
Answer:
 Hi After being together 1.5 years they would be hard to seperate. You do have 2 options (that I can think of). Put them in seperate cages again but push the cages together. this can often work well for those who can't be seperated & need to be seperated. The other thing is to put them into a larger cgae. Replace the perch they fight over with a new perch (so they start all over again). It sounds to me like their cage isn't big enough for the 2 of them. That will always cause frfiction between them. What's the size of their current cage?
Answer:
 Since I have had a similar situation, in which I rescued my teils from I do have some thoughts and ideas for you on this subject. 1. Getting female birds for them would be a very bad idea. 2. Even though they are only bickering at this point it will eventually esculate. It's natural for them to be cocky with each other at times. 3. They have formed a loose bond, but what it means is that you need to have them in seperate cages with their own things. I've tried to place my teils together again, they are biological brothers in a nuetral cage, one that was not familiar to either of them and where neither felt ownership. However, that lasted about two weeks and then they were fighting again. When I placed them in it I made sure it was one right after the other so they had no time to claim the territory. The result is if I have one down the hall to work with there is wild calling, "Reassuring themselves that the human isn't hurting the teil. Sometimes if they want to be assertive with each other and can't reach each other I get the honors of hearing siren wailes from them for twenty minute stretches. "Could be annoying, but I find it clever. My teils are ok as long as they can see each other, but if I move one of them there is frantic worried calling. Mine are only semi tame, and they bite on initial contact, but after that they relish in cuddles. Hope this helps.