Hello, I have two budgies, I was told when they were babies they were both boys, this was based on their baby ceres, one of the birds ceres turned blue after 6 months and the other did not change from its pinky coloured baby cere until now, and it is 3 yrs old, it has turned brown, what does this mean? Cheers!

 

Hi Alpaca-boy, haven't seen you around in a while!

 

It's hard to determine gender without a photo, but from your description, I would say that a hen would get her brown cere sometime around six months old. So if it is only turning brown now, I would lean toward it being a male with an iodine or horomone problem.

 

There are some mutations where the males keep their pinky baby cere color their whole life, such as recessive pieds and inos. Do you have any photos of the bird in question?

 

By the way, my dachshund puppy is three years old, now. How is your dachshund puppy doing?

Sorry I'm going off topic BUT you both have dachshunds, me too I have 2 of them but mine are 10yrs old

Hey Finnie!

Yeah it has been a while! my budgie to me was always a boy because that's what I'd been told, but when ?his? cere finally changed colour to brown I was a bit confused! So I thought I better check it out!

And I can't believe you remembered that! that's fantastic, my puppy is good also, she is 2 1/2 yrs old and very playful still! And my other boy is 8yrs.

Hey Nadene! Dachshunds are brilliant, what colours do you have?

 

I would attach a picture but I've forgotten how to?

My girls are red (they are sisters) with black tails although they are both going grey now. Their mother was red and the father was black and tan so they are a mix both parents.

Oh cool, mine are black and tan, and the other is chocolate and tan

Can someone teach me how to post a picture? Cheers!

You have to upload them onto photobucket and copy the IMG Code and paste it on your post

This place is unbelievable! No one stays on topic anymore LOL. And everyone breaks the rules! It's awesome!!!

We're rebels hehehehe

okay so here is a photo of the budgie in question as a BABY (3 yrs ago)

 

 

AND here is a photo of the budgie in question NOW

 

 

 

If you can tell me what sex it is I'll be a happy man, Cheers!

 

here is a better picture....

 

 

Hi Alpaca boy,

If I was just going by the photos I would say hen but from your description and the fact that it looks male in the first photo I would say male with a hormone or iodine problem. Have you got any photos of him in between?

Very pretty bird by the way.

Cheers Jenny

I agree with Hilly. That baby boy picture is undeniable! Plus, when a hen gets a brown cere, but you can still see some of the background/underneath color, there ought to be some white in that area. And yours just doesn't have any whitish look to it at all.

 

If he seems otherwise healthy, you could start out trying to supplement him with iodine. I think there is info about that around here somewhere.

 

This place is unbelievable! No one stays on topic anymore LOL. And everyone breaks the rules! It's awesome!!!

 

:lol: Who needs rules, anyway?

 

I could post a picture of my dachshund. Heck, we can ALL post pictures of our dachshunds!

baby looks male, adult looks female LOL I don't know, but very pretty bird!

Hi Alpaca- boy, long time since I spotted you on here. Well I had the same problem a long time back and was advised to give 7 drops of Aqueous iodine to 1 litre (hope spelling is near enough) of drinking water. It's available from chemist, might be a bit expensive to treat 2 birds but it did the trick with my Cock bird. He went on to breed some beautiful babies, unfortunatelly he died last year but nothing to do with Iodine. I still give my birds the Iodine every third water change, I use sipper bottles in aviary that I change about once a week or when they get low. If you can't get Iodine try the pink iodine bells from pet shops that may be enough, if it is hormonal.

okay so we think it may be a boy! Oh no, well I just put a nest box in so I guess I'll find out sooner or later! How long roughly do they start laying eggs after you put in a nest box?

Well, I think you are barking up the wrong tree with the nest box, but if it makes you happy to try, whatever!

 

With a real hen, if she is already in proper breeding condition, then it takes about a week to 10 days to produce the first egg. But usually it takes longer than that, because first you have to wait for her to get into a breeding frame of mind, and then mate with the cock.

 

While you are waiting, you should treat them with some iodine, like Robyn suggested, and see what happens. (Her bird is the one I was thinking of. She has an old thread about him.)