Hi guys,

 

I recently noticed my bird 'Lionel' appears to have turned into a girl. When we bought 'him/her' I picked 'him' as a girl and we called 'then-her' Lily. I have been very reliable at picking sexes for several years and I am fairly sure this was my only 'failure' to date.

 

The thing is: Lionel/Lily is a recessive pied so when the cere never turned brown at all and remained stubbornly pink I just assumed I had made a mistake, he was a boy and we renamed him Lionel. That was about three years ago (as soon as my computer has finished installing an update I will check this timing but it has definitely been a few years). 'He/she' has never shown the slightest interest in nesting and has been buddies with our extremely asexual male (thought nothing of it, we have had budgies with various sexual orientations before)

 

My question is: could Lily/Lionel just have hit puberty/matured REALLY late (three years seems a stretch!)? I can't think of any other explanations!!

 

I will find photos and post when I check the dates, but if anyone has ideas, let me know, I'm intrigued (also slightly confused as to which name to use!!)

That was about three years ago (as soon as my computer has finished installing an update I will check this timing but it has definitely been a few years)

 

Right, Lionel/Lily was an early 2009 chick, so 'reaching sexual maturity' at nearly 4...???

 

Also, photos: (current cere state will follow, but now just to get an idea of the 'original')

 

 

Edited September 5, 201212 yr by SunshineE

I'd say Lional is a "he". I have one very similar (cere colouring) who is a male and bred lovely chicks. The hen's cere would turn brown, but if he's stayed the same for that long, neither one or the other I'd say male.

in case the cere chaned again i would change the name (e.g. vanessa for a girl or vinney for a nickname it can also be a male name)

okay so this is what 'he' looks like now: as you can see, it's not even just 'out-of season' brown, its as brown as they come!!

 

And he is definitely four-ish, not like i'm looking at the wrong budgie (i did ask myself that given the unlikeliness of a sex-change!!!)

 

And we've had several recessive pieds before, both male and female and all of our previous ones have remained the correct gender!! our other two we have at the moment are girls (Gilbert, yes, i know, there is a naming issue, but my friend got naming rights when she was just a teeny chick, and Speedo, adopted after a neighbour had her fly in to their garage and they had already named her when we got hold of her.) But my point is that i have seen many recessive pied ceres and Lionel has literally gone from one to the other!!! hence my extreme brain confuzzlement!!!

 

 

Edited September 6, 201212 yr by SunshineE

Looking at this picture you would have to say hen. BUT I have a cock bird (he's had chicks) but his cere changes from blue to brown.

I had a post on here somewhere about him. I was advised maybe lack of Iodine, gave him soluble Iodine in his water (from chemist) 7 drops a litre I think. He returned to a blue cere. now he's back to brown again but he's about 6 yrs old, I'm not breeding him now, he seems to change when he moults.

I'd try to pair this bird with a COCK bird and see if you get any response. Good luck with the puzzle.

Well, Robyn, your male bird that had the iodine issue is what I was thinking of when I read the beginning of SunshinE's question. Sunshine, I think he's a boy, and that he has developed some kind of health issue. It could be iodine deficiency like Robyn's, or it could be testicular cancer or hormone imbalance. I'm pretty sure there are threads around here somewhere that could help you, if you do a search.

Agree that the bid is male with issues as Finnie stated.