I've noticed there are quite a few threads on determining the sex of budgies, but can someone point me to a pinned topic or a website explaining how to determine the gender of a budgie? It seems that the straightforward old adage 'blue for boys, brown for girls' might be too simplistic, and with my lack of experience, I'm finding it hard to see how people can pick the gender of birds so easily!!

 

I'm not sure if this would work, but maybe even a topic could be pinned where people could post pictures of their little ones of indeterminant gender for advice, instead of a new thread being started every time? That way those of us 'learning the ropes' can look over past pictures to get an idea of what to look at instead of trawling the boards for past topics.

 

FAQ answer

Edited February 17, 200718 yr by Nerwen

I think that is a great idea.

 

This is a baby girl 6 weeks old: See how she has white around her nares.

 

This is a baby boy at 6 weeks old: See how he is pink all over and has very little white at all (excuse the red dot on his cere, he banged into a window)

 

This is Isis a female out of breeding condition: See how on the outside of her cere it is kind of bluey white and tan in the centre. The blue on females is never as intense as that on males, which you can see below.

 

This is her in breeding condition: Notice how her cere is also very crumbly and wrinky.

 

This is Arkady (male) at 10 weeks old:

 

This is Arkady at about 14 weeks old, when his cere is starting to change colour:

 

This is his adult cere at 15 months:

 

This is Izzy another adult male: Note: Male's ceres are always smooth:

 

Note on Inos and recessive pieds. The male's cere looks like Arkady's at 10 and 14 weeks and the little 6 week old boy's cere, for their entire life. It doesn't turn blue. Female's ceres look the same as other females.

I hope that helps

Edited February 16, 200718 yr by Sailorwolf

Molly thank you for bringing it to our attention that we havn't got a thread compiled together to help the new people here on what to look for to judge the correct gender of their budgies.

 

Sailor has put up some wonderful pictures and after I hunt through my million and one pictures I'll post some up as well.

I'm just adding some that I already have uploaded on photobucket for now

 

 

Dekota - 8wk female (Note white around nares)

 

 

 

Dekota - 3 mths female (same budgie as above - cere is now nearly all light beige)

 

 

 

 

Dekota - 5 mths female (again - same budgie - cere is now tan as she is going into breeding condition)

 

 

Oh-oh - 8wk male (colour around nares is NOT bright white - therefore male)

 

 

 

Tealah - 4 mths female (a bit tricky, but light blue indicates female)

Keely - 4mths female (tan cere - going into breeding condition)

 

 

 

Keely - 3mths female (same budgie as above but out of breeding condition cere is light blue with some light areas)

 

 

Beau - 4 months male (cere even blue all over)

 

 

 

Zanthie - 3 months male (reccessive pied budgie - all over pink cere)

 

 

Daddy - 2 yr male (dark blue cere indicates in breeding condition)

 

 

 

 

Feathers.

Here are my pictures of both my boys.

One thing to remember that flash can wash out the cere color so when posting your picture of your bird's cere make sure you use natural light.

 

Merlin at 10 months old he is a dominant pied (he has a spot on the back of his head, though he looks like a normal violet).

 

Pretty is a recessive pied the cere stays pink in boys he is almost 2 here

 

Pretty when is was just about 3 months note some boys can have white nasal rings the key is how pink the actual cere is and the smoothness

 

 

Merlin as a baby at just 8 weeks you can see he is all boy very pink cere

 

Sidenote: under the FAQ's there is a topic about sexing budgies too

Young Male

 

Young Female

 

Female, Male, Male, Male, Female (all young)

 

Out of breeding condition female

 

Out of breeding condition female

 

Male moving from young to grown (also out of breeding condition)

 

Hen coming into breeding condition

 

Recessive pied male

 

Hen in breeding condition

 

 

Grown Male in breeding condition

 

Good point about the FAQ lovey but having a pinned topic will help many also.

Edited February 16, 200718 yr by Nerwen

Absolutely I agree and the FAQ really needs to show recessives too it only shows the normal way to tell Great pics Nerwen and everyone.

Thanks everyone - they are great images to compare! I brought Beaker through from the loungeroom and had him side by side with the images, and the more I look he really does appear to be a she. Her cere has gone much lighter in the past couple of days, and she'd be just about 4 months now (her beak has also gone dark green, but I suspect that might have something more to do with sharing spinach with the rabbit!). I guess I'll just have to get used to calling her a she now!

 

And a complete aside, what's been really nice is while I've got her is that she's been sitting quietly with me, listening to me, walking calmly on my finger, sholder and desk, with only minimal angry dolphin! I might have a friend yet

linked this to the FAQ under Sexing Bugdies

How can you tell if recessive male is in breeding condition if his cere is always pink?

It becomes a much deeper pink this is what happened to my Pretty is was a very very deep pink