Figuring Out Their Gender.

[Guest budgies4eva]

Hi again

 

I wanted to know how do you know if you budgies are male or female?

[Lankan 0]

Determine the sex of your Budgie

 

First, how old is your budgie? This often plays a role in whether or not you can tell it's sex. If your budgie is not one year or older, you will not be able to tell for sure if it is a male or female.

 

Budgies are sexually dimorphic in only one way: the cere. The ceres of young budgies under 8-12 months are all about the same: a bright pink or violet color. As the budgie sexually matures, the cere changes according to the budgie's sex.

Females - White/light-blue, tan, or brown cere. This is true for all varieties. With the development of brown color is a flaky texture. This can build up to be about a centimeter thick.

Males -

Blue or purplish-blue cere in normal varieties only.

Bright violet or pink (does not change after youth) occurs in the following varieties: recessive pied, lutino/albino, dark-eyed clear, lacewing, and fallow

If your budgie is less than one year old, the above rules are not applicable. The cere usually begins to change before one year of age but appears relatively ambiguous. A younger budgie's cere can appear to be changing towards one sex and then change the other way upon full sexual maturity at one year of age. However if your young budgie's cere develops the brown flaky appearance characteristic of female budgies you can be sure it is a female. You can also look at behavior to determine gender. Males often bob their heads, sing, and are usually more active and outgoing. Females are usually snitty and bossy over other budgies in the cage, and rarely sing. Females also usually make loud mad budgie sounds. Males sometimes make this sound too, but usually only when singing. If your budgie makes mad budgie sounds often it is most likely a female.

 

I hope this helps

 

BBC FAQ's Budgie Gender

Edited May 8, 2007 by Kaz

[»-(¯`Una´¯)-» 0]

BUDGIE SOUNDS **The page you tried to access does not exist on this server**

I was really keen on hearing what a "MAD BUDGIE" sounds like... hopefully its not that normal ACK ACK ACKing noise they make, considering my birds are most definatly boys and have perfected the art of Acking REALLYYYYY LOUDDDDD Gotta love em

[Elly 0]

Sexing my budgie

 

Generally the colour of a budgie's cere (the coloured area at the top of the beak surrounding the nostrils) is the simplest indicator of gender in adult budgies.

 

Most adult males have a blue cere with a smooth, waxy completion. Some males, such as albinos, lutinos, fallows, and some recessive pieds do not develop a blue cere, instead it remains the pinkish/purple colour they had as a juvenile bird. Below we have added an link to our member's birds and there is an example of the mutations that do not develop the normal blue colored cere in a male budgie. Click here Example of Cere

 

Adult females have a cere that ranges from a light beige or tan colour through to a dark chocolate brown colour, which become flaky when they are in breeding condition.

 

Another indicator is the shape; males tend to have a more rounded bulbous cere compared to the females flatter shaped cere.

 

When budgies are a younger age (6 week to 6 months) it is much harder to work out the sex and it takes a trained eye to pick up the slight differences. The things to look for are an even pinky/purple colour over the whole cere for young males and a pink or blue cere with noticable white rings around the nostrils for females. This is where many go wrong for we associate pink for girls and blue for boys and many pet shop employees believe that this is how to tell the difference and incorrectly sex the birds.

 

If you are still confused about which gender your bird is the nest step is to look at the behaviour of the bird. Females are known to bite harder than males, which is a great way to tell if you have more than one bird. But still any bird can bite hard when not hand tamed or panicked. Males are the talkers of the species and re quite happy to sit alone and warble and chatter to themselves for hours on end. While females have an urge to chew and rip at things; it is a natural breeding instinct to get a nest set up.

 

Visuals: Pictures to Help Sex your Budgie

 

 

 

Notice the blue cere for most cocks or male budgies

 

 

 

Notice the brownish cere for hens or female budgies.

 

 

 

Notice the pinkish cere for young budgies. (Gender is hard to tell)

 

 

Last update: 2007-05-07 04:07

Author: Nerwen

 

 

 

Click here for the full articles with pics http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...d=14&artlang=en

[Daz 0]

I sex my birds at 3 weeks.

 

The Normals and Dominants change their ceres at first moult. approximately 3 months of age. Recessives and red eye hens do the same.But change to a tan colour. Recessive and red eyed cock's cere do change but not to the blue colouring. They stay a pinkish colour.

 

The dark blue and brown of the adult birds usually appear as they become sexually active. This can occur around 5 to 7 months of age.

You will also find that the Cock's cere will stay smooth as the hen's will become crusty and textured.

 

Young chicks in the nest can be sexed by checking the cere around 3 weeks of age. Both cocks and hens will have a pink cere, but the hens will normally lighten around the nostrals. (Nostral rings) Young cocks will be a consistant pinkish colour right across the cere.

Edited May 8, 2007 by Daz

[Guest budgies4eva]

Hi

 

I just wanted to say thanks to all the people that helped me.

 

I thought i had 3 males and 1 female but i got 1 male and 3 females

 

So Thanks

[Daz 0]

If you want to put up some photos we maybe able to help with their variations.