cere changing colors

[Stephany]

My male's cere was originally blue, hence he's a male!, but it turns brown every once in a while. The first time it happened, I thought I was mistaken and he was a girl, but it changed back. The brown lasted about a month, and then the blue stayed for a month. It shifted colors again and has been brown for about two months, but now looks like it's going blue again. I don't understand. Is this normal? Why does it do this? It is a symptom of something wrong like a mineral deficiency? He's over a year old, if this knowledge helps the prognosis.
Please enlighten me,
Stephany

[Monica]

It's possible that your budgie is a female with a very blue cere, and will occasionally 'come into breeding' (in "heat") and will form a brown cere (however, I've rarely actually heard of the brown coming off and showing the undercolors of white and/or blue).

That, or my next guess would be an internal problem (health related... maybe even diet related) that may be causing his cere to change colors...

[eterri]

It means he's a she, as Monica said. ^.^

Female budgies' ceres are made up of layers. The bottom layer is white-ish with a blue tinge. When in breeding condition, it crusts up and is a deep brown color. Then, out of breeding condition it goes back to the tan/white/light blue color.

If your budgie were a male his cere would be *bright* blue always. It would never change.

A testicular tumor can cause a male budgie's cere to change from blue to brown but this usually only happens in older males and it wouldn't change back to the blue color.

I think it's safe to say that your he is a she. :)