Molly is a boy.../cry

I got a gender test on my Sun Conure Molly and found out Molly is a boy. I'm so sad. I don't know why I'm so sad but I am and I do the know how to move forward. I obviously still love him but I'm worried. He already knows his name and now I have to change it and I am afraid he'll get aggressive at puberty. Anyone have this happen to them?

Oh no!!!! Molly is a boy! wOW! Aggression at puberty happens to BOTH sexes, so don't worry about that being an issue with just the one sex. Happens to both. Now you won't have to deal with eggs being laid or possible bound-egg syndrome.

I feel your pain and confusion on this. But that doesn't mean you have to love Molly any less. In fact, you can still call him Molly if you want, it is just a name But maybe you could think of a name that sounds similar to Molly, if you want.

Here's a link to M-letter bird names to help you! Again, don't feel too heartbroken on this At least you know now for sure. My Jenday was a DNA male and he was the sweetest bird! A lot like your Molly.

I was actually thinking Ollie. It's pretty close to Molly and I always liked that name. Ofc I still love my baby just as much!

That sounds awesome, I love that name! Very similar, just perfect!!! I'm voting Ollie!

How your bird reacts to puberty and the coming into mating season in the following years depends to some extent on your relationship with the bird. My last parrot, Maxie (RIP), we never even noticed when he went thru puberty or any of the mating season issues.

So Molly is a boy.
Some names:
Mallory
Maloy
Mallard

Call him Mol for short and youll forget about it, eventually.

Well, you're not the first member to find that they have been living with a Parrot that turned out to be a different Sex than what they believed and you will certainly not be the last. So, join at sizable number of Owners that are finding themselves in the same position!

I'm on the side of keep the current name, but if you plan to change, your choice of like sounding name is much better than something like Ed!

As with all things in life, this too shall pass! There are as many Sweet Boys as their are Sweet Girls in the Parrot World. The level of kindness you bring into your Parrot prior to puberty will more likely continue afterwards.

Love your little boy and much as you loved your little girl and all will be wonderful! After all, your Molly knew that she was a he all along!

My babysitter joked all the time...She said I love "her" so much I'm going to turn her into a boy. She's been saying it for months. I guess I turned her to a boy lol. He was probably wondering why I'm calling him a pretty baby girl the whole time.

I glad I do the have to worry about him being egg bound...That's a huge relief.

That egg issue *IS* a huge relief, or would be for me.

I LOVE "Ollie"!!!!

I also thought of "Dali" (as in Salvador), Paulie, Jolly, Rollie, or Wally.

Awwwww. It's just like that Johnny Cash song, only Molly instead of Sue. I'm quite certain there's a whole lot of parrots out there who have a name of the opposite sex. I'm sure he doesn't mind his name at all.

Awww Ollie! Love it.

My GCC, Peep, we were told was a boy. Peep one day laid an egg and climbed out of the cage as far away as she could. Even she was surprised!

Missing my GCC. Enjoy Ollie!

Well as someone who has been exactly where you're at right now I can give you my story and tell you that I would not ever change Molly's name now, it's his name!

I purchased my Quaker parrot, Lita Ford (named after my guitar hero) from a very reputable breeder on Long Island that was recommended to me by my avian vet's secretary. She had two clutches that had hatched and had a mix of green, blue, and cinnamon blue that were about 5 weeks old when I inquired. She doesn't breed many clutches so this was it for last year, and she had all her babies DNA sexed by her avian vet, who is at an avian veterinary hospital in Manhattan. So I picked out a blue girl because I wanted blue, and I didn't want the aggressive behaviors...So over the following 3-4 weeks she sent me pics every other day, little texts about things Lita was doing, videos, just a wonderful breeder. Right after Lita weaned she took the clutch to her avian vet for their final well-birdy checkups and fecal smears, everything was good. She sent me Lita's entire medical record, two appointment charts, all the fecal test results, blood work, and DNA sex certificate. I drove up to Long Island and picked little baby Lita up at 8 weeks old, and Lita sat on my shoulder all the way home for 4 hours, preening my ear and giving me kisses. I loved this little baby Quaker so much!

Lita was very, very vocal right off the bat, even at 8 weeks old, whistling, mumbling, screaming, etc. Lita was very, very loud, as Quakers are, but knowing birds as well as I do I was happily surprised when between 4-5 months Lita started talking very clearly. "I love you", "My baby!", "Hi", "Hello", Lita said all of these very clearly by 6 months old. It was almost like I could say a word or phrase to Lita and she would immediately try to repeat it, and I thought it very odd for a female. But Quakers are known to be very vocal and much better talkers than any other species of parrot I had ever had, so I just figured it was a Quaker thing. Then around 7 months old Lita flew downstairs with my green cheek conure and my cockatiel for breakfast when I let them out of their sleep cages. I typically let them go downstairs when I wake up, and I hit the bathroom before I go downstairs to feed everyone. Well I was half awake in the bathroom when I heard Duff, my very young, female cockatiel (about 12-13 weeks old at that point and who I had only had for a month) start squawking and screaming in a very angry, aggressive way. Duff had hardly made a peep in the month I'd had her, so I thought she was hurt. I ran downstairs to find Lita on top of Duff, or trying to get on top of Lita repetitively and wasn't giving up. So this combined with how vocal Lita was got me wondering...So I took Lita along with her DNA sexing certificate to my avian vet, explained my concerns, and he agreed. So he clipped a toenail and I waited...He called me to tell me it came back that Lita was a male. He asked me to swing in again quickly with Lita so he could get another blood sample to do a repeat test at a different lab to confirm. So a week later he called me again, and again Lita tested male. My very first thought was "How am I going to call Lita a boy? Especially online when I'm writing about MY MALE QUAKER PARROT who is named LITA". I actually felt like I was insulting Lita Ford, lol. Then I thought about the hormones, which wasn't a huge deal to me but it was something I had wanted to avoid. Uhg. I did text my breeder to let her know, just in case the hospital or lab had switched two of the certificates and she got a call from someone else who bought one of Lita's siblings and thought it was a boy but was actually a girl. The breeder was really apologetic and asked if I wanted to trade Lita in for a blue, female baby from her next clutch the following year, she said she could use Lita as a breeder, or could possibly even keep him as a pet for her son. While I appreciated the breeder being willing to do this there was absolutely no way I was giving up Lita, I loved him dearly. But what to do about that name?

I was talking to my mom about Lita and his name conundrum the day after I found out about it, and my mom looked at me with a really puzzled look, like she had no idea what the problem was (my mom has bred many species of birds since she was a teenager, she is now 61, so she understands bird hormones). I told her I wasn't very concerned about the male hormones because #1 I keep my birds on a solar schedule which knocks them right out of breeding mode, and at most they all get cranky for a week or two twice a year and that's it, no major aggression, biting issues, etc., and #2 I already had a male yellow-sided green cheek conure that was over a year old at that time and who wasn't a major problem at all, and when he did get huffy, cranky, whatever you want to call it, I would get him on a strict solar schedule, lower his protein intake a bit, and in a week he was fine, so I figured what the hell, I'll just put them both on the same plan together. BUT THAT NAME!!! That was my issue, calling Lita a him. My mom at first laughed at me and told me I was being silly for worrying about my male bird having a female name, but once I told her I was trying to pick a new name for him that sounded similar to "Lita" so he wouldn't be too confused, she quickly stopped laughing, got a very serious look on her face, and said something to me that I will never forget and that made total sense to me.

She said "Ellen, you've had this bird for 6 months already and you've been calling him Lita for the entire time. From what I've seen you love him dearly and he definitely loves you. When I watched the birds for you last month Lita would step up for me but was visibly unhappy being on my finger, and he just screamed constantly for 3 days. As soon as you walked back through the door he flew to you and was like a different bird. So you're a very lucky person. You've got two dogs and a bunch of birds that are all healthy, happy, and that love you. A lot of people would give anything to have the pets that they've lost back. You remember that poor, heartbroken woman who let her cockatiel out the front door accidentally and has been looking for it every day for a year? She'd do anything to have her bird back, and your biggest problem is that your totally healthy, happy, loving bird is a boy and not a girl like you thought. And he has a girl's name. So what? You chose that name because it meant something to you and the bird meant something to you. And you've been calling the poor bird Lita since the day you brought him home. It's his name. It's the first thing that bird learned, he knows you're talking to him when you say "Lita" and he comes to you when you call him. Not only would it be unfair and very confusing to him if you changed his name at this point, but in the grand scheme of things who is really going to care? And if someone does care and says something about his name, screw them Ellen, that's your attitude about everything else, why change now?"

She was completely correct. It would have been "unfair and confusing" to Lita had I changed his name. And why change it anyway? I picked it for a reason as I'm sure you picked the name "Molly" for a reason, and I'm sure Molly knows her name as well. So Molly is a male. So what? That's the most innate thing that your bird knows as far as life with you, his name. You can squelch any hormonal issues he has pretty easily, and females have hormonal issues too that are almost as bad, plus with a female you have to worry about egg-laying and your baby becoming egg-bound and possibly dying. So there's a check on the "pro male" side of the board.

There are good and bad aspects of both bird sexes. Both have hormonal issues that can be controlled without any medical intervention, and you are eliminating any future egg laying and the possibly fatal consequences that can come along with it. You love your bird very much, that's very obvious, and he loves you. He's gorgeous, he's smart, well-trained, and he's loving towards you. And he's been a boy named Molly this whole time! Why change anything now?

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

I understand what you're saying. I did not choose Molly...I got her at Petco (yeah I know...At the time I had no idea there were bird rescues and such) and his name was Molly. I liked it enough so I kept it. It means nothing to me. I honestly don't call him Molly that often...I mostly call him Baby and other annotations of that. I think if I go with Ollie... It's sooooo close. It's going to be fine. Thank you for your story. It also has to do with that he is my only bird and of I had many birds I might keep his name but he is my baby and having a girl name isn't something that sits well will me. OLLIE it is everyone!

Sunnyclover said:

I understand what you're saying. I did not choose Molly...I got her at Petco (yeah I know...At the time I had no idea there were bird rescues and such) and his name was Molly. I liked it enough so I kept it. It means nothing to me. I honestly don't call him Molly that often...I mostly call him Baby and other annotations of that. I think if I go with Ollie... It's sooooo close. It's going to be fine. Thank you for your story. It also has to do with that he is my only bird and of I had many birds I might keep his name but he is my baby and having a girl name isn't something that sits well will me. OLLIE it is everyone!

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Yay, welcome sweet Ollie!!!

I'm the same way with my pet names. My two cockatiels had different names when I got them at 3-4 years old (the male's name was Angel, lol) but I was not going to have a bird with such an....let's call it uncreative name. lol. I came up with names I preferred instead. It's the same with my cats -- usually I'm the only one that addresses them by name, most other people call them 'girl' and 'boy' cat as they look very similar. The vet almost always butchers my female cat's name (Miyuki -- Mee-you-kee) but I don't care lol.

Especially because Ollie is so young, one day you'll look back at this moment and say to him 'remember when I thought you were a girl? LOL' and you'll laugh all about it !

I hope so. I have yet to return home for 3 hours since I got the call after my workout while running errands. I'm like scared to go home but I have to face the music in about 10 mins when I take my son home from school. I feel sick about it...Like I did something to the poor little guy. I'll get over it though...Ofc. I will explain it to him and hopefully he'll understand. I don't know why I think he's going to be mad at me!

Hey we never got Salty tested for his sex, even tho the vet offered. I said he is a boy until he lays an egg at which point his name will be Saltine. Give Ollie a big smooch.

Here is how my JoJo handled his identity crisis!

Flboy said:

Results in:........

She is.. A dude!
Just had a talk with JoJo, She says, per federal mandate, She has the right-no- obligation to refuse the H word! And, 'transgender' is a label not to be thrown around carelessly!
Don't know what to say! I will need to respect her wishes! Wait, Her,, H word? Now I am confused!

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LOL I love that! Saltine. Nice.

Flboy said:

Here is how my JoJo handled his identity crisis!

Flboy said:

Results in:........

She is.. A dude!
Just had a talk with JoJo, She says, per federal mandate, She has the right-no- obligation to refuse the H word! And, 'transgender' is a label not to be thrown around carelessly!
Don't know what to say! I will need to respect her wishes! Wait, Her,, H word? Now I am confused!

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LOLOL awwwww

I had Skittles DNA sexed at his first vet appt about a month after I got him. I soooo wanted him to be a boy and so glad he was! For one, I had Peaches at the time, my cockatiel and she was a girl.

The thing about the female birds I don't care for is the whole egg issue. I was relieved to find out Skittles is a male. The closer the bond is that you have with your bird the more of an issue egg-laying can be (at least in my experience).

As for puberty- sunnies are well known to go through a 'terrible twos' stage as they go through puberty between the ages of 1-3yo. Sunnies are already very 'toddler-like' so the terrible twos can be particularly distressing for us. Its during this time that territorial and aggression manifests itself significantly. So during these stages its important to maintain your boundaries with your bird by setting limits and not letting their behavior get out of control.

Once they reach adulthood (about 3yo) it gets easier (provided that you have proper and healthy boundaries with your sun). I went through several years of "evil Skitty" lol, before he became the sweetheart he is now.