Male from female

[EmmaBelle]

I apologize for asking such a silly question..and I actually have owned parakeets all my life...my last little buddy lived 10 yrs and I miss him desperately. It's been several months now and my step-daughter and would like to obtain a new parakeet. I definately want a male..but the colors are so varied now that I am stumped...and I don't really trust the shop employees to know the difference. Is there an easy way to tell male from females? One very young little subject had the most brilliant purple nose bridge! I thought they were ether blue or beige! Would someone help me? Thank-you so much... EmmaBelle and Kelly

[Monica]

Young males have pink to a blue-ish purple color. The older they get the deeper blue their cere gets. A male budgies cere remains one overall color.

Females will usually have a white cere, to a tanish (beige) or crusty brown cere. You must not mistake a females cere for a males as females can have blue and/or tan colorings on their white ceres. If they have any coloring on a white cere, there is usually blue on top and possibly tan below...

From the sounds of it, about the bird you have described, from what I can make of it, the young bird that you are interested in is a young male budgie. As he gets older, his cere will deepen to a blue color.

[EmmaBelle]

Monica thank-you so much! That was a great deal of help..but my other concern was this adorable creatures color. He was prodominantly white...with just a hint of a blue breast...my old wives history has always been that females are less colorful...so I thought this little one was a female. The sign said they were all between the age of 12 to 16 weeks. Would you deem this little one to be a male then...going by the cere? Thank-you...

[Lora, Archer, & Kira]

The brighter/duller feather coloring does not apply to budgies. I had two yellow and green budgies (one male, the other female) which were both just as brightly colored. :)

[Monica]

It could possibly be a male... For parrots, male vs. female colorings, in most parrots, the females look just like the males. In a couple cockatoos, and some species of parakeets there are easy visual identification between the sexes, and other species, where there is one or two visual signs telling males from females (such as cockatiels, indian ringnecks, and a couple others).

Most cockatoos, greys, macaws, conures, and some other birds, the males and females look identical. Many old wives tales are not true.... Think about birds of prey... Such as eagles. The males and females look the same, the only difference between the sexes is the females larger body size...

I've had two blue budgies, one now and one in the past. Same coloring of blue, and markings quite similar. They were of opposite sex, so I'm saying the same as Lora, Archer, & Kira here...

It is possible that the budgie that you have picked out is male, though it's hard to tell with him being so young.

[parakeetsrule]

my parakeet has a purplish color on that thing above his beak where the nose holes are. is my parakeet male or female? (i've had my parakeet for almost five months, i got him/her on january 17 2004) :?: 8)

[Monica]

Sounds like quite possibly a male...

[riverrat1673]

Hi Emmabelle:

I've raised parakeets, and let me tell you, with all the color variations these days, it's next to impossible to tell by the color of their ceres until they mature at about 6 months.

However, having said that, I have discovered that you can tell by feeling the plevic bones even when they're young. They're located a little above the vent. If the bones have a space between them, they're females. They have to be able to pass eggs past the pelvic bones. The bones in a male almost touch. If you're worried about bites, use gloves or a facecloth to hold the bird gently while you check. Once you've done this a few times (on both sexes) you should be able to determine the sex every time.

I know there are some "experts" who would disagree with the accuracy of this method, but I've raised birds for fourteen years and have made only
one wrong call. You can use this method on most of the smaller birds. I also determine the sex of my baby Quakers that way.

By the way, would someone please tell me what "fid" stands for? I've thought, and I've pondered to no avail. Flock is dominate? Feathers in daylight? Family in design? Help me, won't you?

[Monica]

LOL! FID means Feathered Kid, as Fildren means Feathered Children, another one that might be used sometimes. Just had this discussion on two other topics the other day. It's usually confusing to all of us when we are new to birds, or have never heard the term before! Took me some time before I knew what it was, and even then it took me some time to remember it!

[riverrat1673]

That's a help. This is the first chat room/message board I've joined, and I find the shortening to initials is quite confusing. Is there a new world dictionary for this new language?

Riverrat1673
1 Grey - Ricki
1 Green Cheek Conure - Petey
1 Quaker - Travis