A question on age

[VeraT]

I have a question since everyone is being so quiet. At what age dose a budgies eyes start getting the grey parrot ring on the outside? Spidey is getting the grey ring and Sweety still dosnt have it. I thought they were about the same age but different clutch's. He is also bigger then her and it isnt just the color s that make it look that way. Any thoughts??

[CACPioneer]

Why, thank you Blake!

It differs from bird to bird, but for a budgie, it'll usually appear very soon after the first moult (at around 1 year of age).

Don't frett if your Sweetie still doesn't have the white circle (I think it's called the Iris? Not sure if it's called something different in birds). Lexi's ring only started becoming distinctly visible in the past two months or so, and she's 1 year and 4 months old! Even then hers isn't as bright as noticable as Buddy's. Buddy's white ring became prominant when he began his first moult, which was at about 9 months of age.

As far as using the little white ring to predict age, it isn't all that great at producing an exact number (as I demonstrated with my example of my two fids). I'm not sure if anyone else can either help or tell me otherwise, but I used first moult as a predictor of age. I estimate that budgies will moult at about 9-10 months of age. (Please, if anyone knows different and thinks my moult-to-predict-age-theory is wrong, then please let me know!!)

[Monica]

The eye ring can actually appear as early as 5 months which can also be around the time of the first molt. Budgies usually first molt around the age of 5-6 months, though the temperature and diet can play a huge role as when a bird molts. I know of one petstore in Reno that gets all their budgies from a breeder in Florida, so I'm sure that too makes a difference having to get used to humidity and air changes.

As CACPioneer has said, it does differ from bird to bird! It's usually around the 5-8 month period where the eyering appears grey if its visible at all. Some people may even notice a more white appearance. Now here comes a slightly harder challange... Different mutations vary in the brightness of the white, while some mutations keep a dark eye and others have a red eye!


As far as size goes, it varies as well since many 'american' budgies have 'english' blood in them making them larger. Most 'american' budgies are bred for the pet trade and breeders usually keep the best that their stock produces. If there is any english blood in them then of course some budgies may be larger, while others may have just been bred from larger stock. Both of my budgies came from different homes, and one is noticeably larger than the other. Without actually being able to compare them with purebred english budgies, I thought that this larger bird, Cosmo, was an english budgie. After doing research on both 'american' and 'english' I just came to the conclusion that he's either a really large bird or he has some english blood in him (and since then I have also been able to view english budgies!).

[VeraT]

Thank you both. Spidey , who is turning into my shadow has a slight eye ring. you really have to look to see it. Sweety dosnt have one at all. as a matter of fact she has beady black rat eye's LOL. She still hasnt started to really molt. Spidey seems to be loosing feathers every ware. He is starting to get his wing feathers back but its hard to tell how many since he is a "touch me not" bird. He dosnt want to be touched at all and will run as soon as he thinks you are going to get to close to him. But he likes to follow me from room to room. he dose it sneaky. I go into one room and he will just appear there after a few minutes. when I go into another room he just appears in there after a little while. He dose this all day. Sweety just screams when he takes off. she dosnt wander to much yet. but we've only had them for about 2 months so far.