hi all im new to this and more confused about sexing my budgie by the cere colour . i bought this little one from a breeder as a baby boy ( about 9 weeks old now ) and i was happy by the cere colour this was the case . as you can see in the pics though the colour is going slightly brown . do boys do this before going blue or do i infact have a young hen ? im planning to breed from this bird when about 12 months old but would like to know the sex before i buy a partner for him/her ?

hope these photos help , thanks

 

i also think the pied is a young cock , is this right ?

Edited October 7, 200816 yr by **Liv**

Can you get a closer photo? I've never seen one go brown at 9 weeks...

I say it is a hen. a closer photo will tell for sure, but i see iris rings too so i think your budgie is about 12 weeks or so. She is probably very close to her first moult too.

Now that you say it I can see the iris rings too, she seems older than what they told you, is she from a pet shop?

I agree with Liv mate, She isn't a baby bird ... (3 - 4 Months )

 

If you can get a closer photo in natural sun light on both of them ( cere )

It would be more helpful .. But i am thinking that the YF is a She

She is a cutie, Merlin got his iris rings very early before his first molt and his cere was still pink . I agree with the others and looks like a hen to me too.

I'm going to have to be a pain in the butt here and disagree, I beleive it's a cock but the photo catches some weird shades. In the front on picture it looks like a standard cock cere.

 

Hens are usually more opaque white/blue by this age where as a cock will still look the purple/pink

i bought this one from a breeder just fledged out of the nest probably about 3 weeks ago now . the cere still has a blue ring around it but i will get some better close up natural picks tomorrow . thanks for the help i would hate to end up trying to breed 2 hens together LOL :question:

I don't know, I still reckon it could be a cock. Sometimes I've seen young normals with black beaks have purply-brown ceres. It's too young for a hen's cere to go crusty brown anyway. If it looked very much like a male cere before, it probably is one, but if you weren't too sure before then it's harder to say.

 

Looks a lot like my Cosmo only a bit younger :question:

this is the best i could do . i caught the budgie and ahd it in my hand while attepted to take some photos - then the battery went flat ! this budgie didnt bite very hard and is pretty sociable with the 5 other birds in its cage , ( 2 hens and 3 boys ) and the cere is starting to lok puplish/brown

I still think boy, but am interested to hear what others think, and also how it looks in a few more weeks/months.

 

 

 

Actually.... see the green normal in my display picture? He's the one squished under the two others, you can only see the top of his head in the right corner I'm pretty sure he had a brown cere for a bit.

Edited October 7, 200816 yr by krosp

im still thinking boy too because of the original cere colour and teperament but wont be at all dissapointed to be wrong . just means i can but the yf type 2 ive always wanted