budgies

angelic00

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Anyone know anything on sexing budgies,i got 2 for my birthday from my bf and everything i read says boys have a blue cere and females are white,beige or brown.One of mine has a bright pink cere and the other has a white one(which iam sure is female) Iam just not sure of the bright pink one.
 

gingersmom

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You can't tell if they are still babies - their ceres (noses) change over time.

It is correct, though - the boys have blue noses.


(I had about 8 parakeets as pets over the course of my growing up.)
 

goldenkitty45

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Where did you buy them from? In the pet stores they are old enough for sexing and I've always known the boys have blue. Never heard of one with pink. Is it an albino?

If they change, what age do they change to the adult color?
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Where did you buy them from? In the pet stores they are old enough for sexing and I've always known the boys have blue. Never heard of one with pink. Is it an albino?

If they change, what age do they change to the adult color?
By the time they go through their first moult as adults, and lose the black bars on the teeny feathers on their foreheads, so between 9-12 months, if I recall correctly.

I've always known them to be light brown if female but then again, I've had mostly boys.
 

epona

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What colour are your budgies? Because if they are albino or lutino the cere will stay pink for both sexes as they lack pigment.

Otherwise baby budgies are very hard to sex, males may start off with a cere that is white with a slight bluish tint, whereas females may have a slightly warmer shade of white, or either can be pinkish.

Adult males have blue ceres, ranging from pale blue to almost purple, and adult females will have pinkish beige to dark brown ceres. In females the cere can go crusty, don't worry if that happens, it is due to hormones and happens when they are in breeding mode.
 

goldenkitty45

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Would the albinos have a slight pale blue if a male or are they totally pink and never change? How would you be able to tell M/F is they stay pink?

Thanks for the info - we only had 2 keets growing up (both males - one blue, one green) - that's my extent of bird ownership
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by Epona

What colour are your budgies? Because if they are albino or lutino the cere will stay pink for both sexes as they lack pigment.

Otherwise baby budgies are very hard to sex, males may start off with a cere that is white with a slight bluish tint, whereas females may have a slightly warmer shade of white, or either can be pinkish.

Adult males have blue ceres, ranging from pale blue to almost purple, and adult females will have pinkish beige to dark brown ceres. In females the cere can go crusty, don't worry if that happens, it is due to hormones and happens when they are in breeding mode.
Lutinos are a specific type of cockatiel, and the term does not apply to budgies.

As far as I know, albino budgies are extremely rare, though there are white-feathered budgies, I have never seen one with pink eyes and/or cere.

I have only ever seen females with pinkish/brown noses, so I can't answer regarding the other cere color possibilities.

Also, crusty ceres can be a serious problem that is not hormonally-based; rather, it indicates a parasitic infection that must be treated with medication applied with a Q-tip. If your budgie evelops a crusty cere, a vet trip to an avian specialist (not any old vet, must be a bird specialist) is required.
 

andrea742

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When they cere turns brown on a hen that means they are in breeding mode.

In albinos the males have pink ceres, but the females will turn brown.

You can also tell if one is a male because they are the ones most likely to be the ones trying to feed the other bird. Females often are the more bossy of the 2.

But the above poster is correct about it being scaley. Could indicate mites.
 

arlyn

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Originally Posted by GingersMom

Lutinos are a specific type of cockatiel, and the term does not apply to budgies.
Not true, budgies can come in Albino (white w/red eyes), Lutino (yellow w/red eyes), and Creamino (which is actually a yellow face white).

Then you have the dark eyed clear, which is any solid color with normal eyes.

Then there are cinnamon lutino/albino, which are also called lacewing.
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

Not true, budgies can come in Albino (white w/red eyes), Lutino (yellow w/red eyes), and Creamino (which is actually a yellow face white).

Then you have the dark eyed clear, which is any solid color with normal eyes.

Then there are cinnamon lutino/albino, which are also called lacewing.
Well, I raised budgies for over 20 years, and had a cockatiel (that I bred) for 17 years, and got quite the education in that almost 40 years where birds, and especially budgies are concerned. Cats are what I'm new at, now two years into being a Meowmy.

Perhaps there are new budgie color definitions that have been put together over the last two decades, but that's new by me.


Whatever...
 

arlyn

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Yes, fairly recent, last 10-15 years or so.
My last budgie pair (English male, American hen) were a lutino/lacewing couple, that was 7 years ago.
The English lacewing had been a show prospect, but the lady I adopted them from lost him to the American hen, she wooed him into a mixed marriage
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

Yes, fairly recent, last 10-15 years or so.
My last budgie pair (English male, American hen) were a lutino/lacewing couple, that was 7 years ago.
The English lacewing had been a show prospect, but the lady I adopted them from lost him to the American hen, she wooed him into a mixed marriage
Got it, thanks for the info. I knew I was getting old, but I had no idea that I was archaic already.


 

epona

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I'm sorry but you can get lutino budgies - they're actually quite common here. Lutino is a general term that is not species specific and can apply to any parrot species - just as albino is an absence of melanin pigmentation, lutino is absence of the substance that makes feathers appear blue or green (which is not actually a pigment, but is caused by light refraction).

Most common parrot species where you find lutinos are budgies, cockatiels, Fischer lovebirds, indian ringnecks, and Quakers, but they also occur sometimes in Senegals, red rumped parrots, and many of the australasian parakeets.

You can tell the difference between a breeding hen's scaly cere and scaly face by looking for small holes in the skin on and around the cere - that's where the mites burrow into the skin


Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Would the albinos have a slight pale blue if a male or are they totally pink and never change? How would you be able to tell M/F is they stay pink?
There's just a complete lack of pigment, so they stay the same pink colour as the bird's skin. The only way you can tell for sure is if they lay an egg (obviously female
) or by DNA test, although you may be able to tell by their voice if you have a trained ear, male and female budgies are both noisy but males will spend more time repeating their bird song (known as a warble) and females will spend more time chirruping.
 

goldenkitty45

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Hey don't feel bad in the updated colors.

When I had hamsters you only had the standard ones - not all these other colors/breeds. And same with the gerbils - they only came in brown (natural).

I was kinda shocked walking in a pet store to see black, and multicolor gerbils.

I just wonder WHERE in the heck did these other colors come from - mice have always had different colors....lol
 

epona

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My related question is: "is it wrong to not know the gender of your pet?"

I've had my Sennie, who I named Jasper, for 5 1/2 years now, and I don't know whether 'he' is male or female! I'm not planning to breed from 'him' so I think it's sort of irrelevant. 'He' isn't mature yet so isn't going to prove me wrong by laying an egg or anything.

Is there anyone here who thinks it's odd to have a pet that you don't know whether to refer to as 'he' or 'she'?
 

arlyn

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In the case of birds, I prefer knowing the gender due to possible egg binding or reabsorption issues.

Thankfully, the one species most prone to eggbinding or over production of eggs is cockatiels, pretty easy to tell on them with most color morphs.


ETA: I had my birds tested myself, I did feather DNA testing, which costs slightly more than blood sexing, but it's easy and cheap to do yourself.
I used Avian Biotech's services, I think I paid $25 per bird.
 

epona

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

In the case of birds, I prefer knowing the gender due to possible egg binding or reabsorption issues.

Thankfully, the one species most prone to eggbinding or over production of eggs is cockatiels, pretty easy to tell on them with most color morphs.


ETA: I had my birds tested myself, I did feather DNA testing, which costs slightly more than blood sexing, but it's easy and cheap to do yourself.
I used Avian Biotech's services, I think I paid $25 per bird.
Yeah there are some species of birds where it would be beneficial for their health to know, but Sennies are not prolific layers at the best of times. They are slow maturing and usually only lay a couple per breeding season (late autumn), if they are female. It's not usually a concern with them so I've not bothered. I think he's male because the feathers around his vent are yellow with no green, but that's only a vague generalised indication, not indisputible fact! Certainly if I had a lovebird I would want to know its gender before it got into the whole laying thing, they can really go into overdrive with egg-laying and do themselves damage, so I'd want to know so I could get a female a hormone injection to stop egg-laying before it started as that species in particular can get ill through their prolific egg production
 

arlyn

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I don't know what's normal in the UK, but here there are some avian specialists that are preforming spays on chronic egg layers now.
 

bnwalker2

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Originally Posted by Epona

My related question is: "is it wrong to not know the gender of your pet?"

I've had my Sennie, who I named Jasper, for 5 1/2 years now, and I don't know whether 'he' is male or female! I'm not planning to breed from 'him' so I think it's sort of irrelevant. 'He' isn't mature yet so isn't going to prove me wrong by laying an egg or anything.

Is there anyone here who thinks it's odd to have a pet that you don't know whether to refer to as 'he' or 'she'?
I had a Zebra Finch named Tweeky that someone gave to me when they moved. My mom still has "him". The people that had Tweeky before me had no clue of the gender and I still don't know. I just always referred to Tweek as a "he".
 
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