A budgie's gender?

[ETinSC]

Hi eyad,

Fellows here are right on spot! First the turquoise needs an urgent beak trim that must be done by a veterinary. Look, sometimes beaks overgrown due to poor diet that might affect the liver functioning. Of course changing the diet will help your bird to renew the beak to a more healthy status. Beaks as our finger nails grow all the time and after the health of your bird is reestablished the beak will grow a nice new layer from the nostrils toward the tip.

Please check with a vet for advice regarding the beak issues.

Regarding the ages, I would say both have less than one year. Older budgies will have lost their forehead stripes (like in the picture) as mentioned by Stormypica, still they are not that old as mature budgies? eyes tend to have a white ring around the pupill.

Considering they are both less than one year old, I would say they are not sexually mature yet. For that reason, the cere colour of their noses is pinkish. It is common for young males to have it pinkish before it turns blue, I think the turquoise is a male. However it is not that easy for lutino, albino or pied mutations. The yellow one is a pied mutation, which means the bird has only partially the expected markings. In such mutations, both male and female can keep a pinkish cere their whole life, however if you observe the nostril region of the yellow bird you can notice it is a bit paler than the turquoise. In that case, I would say it is a hen as the fellows here pointed out.

I'm new, so I'm not sure if I'm doing this reply correctly. I don't have my budgie yet, but I will within a few weeks. I really want to get a boy budgie. I'm a little nervous after hearing a few times that you may not know for sure the sex of a bird until it's about a year old. I've been looking around for a decent store to get a budgie from and I'm paying attention to the ceres of the birds I see. Some look clearly blue to me. I guess there's no way to know for sure? Am I right about that? Sigh... :20:

 

[MrLaurieKeats]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Picking a budgies gender can be tricky! Male ceres are generally bright blue but this can vary depending on the colour mutation, age and breeding condition.

Bumping your post back up in hopes one of our budgie enthusiasts can be of more help to you

 

[Kitekeeper]

Thank you ETinSC for the good question!

Also thanks MrLaurieKeats for bumping the topic

I had several budgies when I was a teenager. Now after a long gap, I have a couple once again. I have a limited experience as I was never a professional breeder, but I endured many experiences with them. I learned a lot!

From clutches with steril eggs, clutches that produced beautiful babies, handfeeding some of them to even the most incredible experience of having two babies born from the same egg!!

I may have sexed nearly three to four dozen budgies from young age to adult belonging to several of the most common mutations.

Yes, MrLaurieKeats is right, the cere color depends on age. mutation and breeding condition.

I will share my experience here to help you, but surely many others here may have more accurate notes on this subject.

Mature males will have a deep blue cere and mature females will have a cere of the same color of their beak or (during their reproductive phase) a chocolate brown cere. This apply to almost all budgies over than one year of age EXCEPT for albino, lutino and pied mutations.

Those (lutino and pied mutations) will have a pinkish violet cere for males and a pale blue/pinkish cere for females that might never change during their whole life.

Young budgies (less than six months old) if male will have the same pinkish violet blue and the females a pale blue/light sand cere. I have the impression that young male budgies have red and blue pigments in the cere and will loose the red pigment when reaching adulthood keeping only the blue. Females will have just a light blue pigment when young and will loose it when reaching adulthood leaving the cere as the same color of the beak.

Here goes a link that show it all with pictures: https://carebirds.com/identify-a-budgie-male-or-female-by-its-ceres-color/

I hope this help

 

[ETinSC]

Thank you ETinSC for the good question!

Also thanks MrLaurieKeats for bumping the topic

I had several budgies when I was a teenager. Now after a long gap, I have a couple once again. I have a limited experience as I was never a professional breeder, but I endured many experiences with them. I learned a lot!

From clutches with steril eggs, clutches that produced beautiful babies, handfeeding some of them to even the most incredible experience of having two babies born from the same egg!!

I may have sexed nearly three to four dozen budgies from young age to adult belonging to several of the most common mutations.

Yes, MrLaurieKeats is right, the cere color depends on age. mutation and breeding condition.

I will share my experience here to help you, but surely many others here may have more accurate notes on this subject.

Mature males will have a deep blue cere and mature females will have a cere of the same color of their beak or (during their reproductive phase) a chocolate brown cere. This apply to almost all budgies over than one year of age EXCEPT for albino, lutino and pied mutations.

Those (lutino and pied mutations) will have a pinkish violet cere for males and a pale blue/pinkish cere for females that might never change during their whole life.

Young budgies (less than six months old) if male will have the same pinkish violet blue and the females a pale blue/light sand cere. I have the impression that young male budgies have red and blue pigments in the cere and will loose the red pigment when reaching adulthood keeping only the blue. Females will have just a light blue pigment when young and will loose it when reaching adulthood leaving the cere as the same color of the beak.

Here goes a link that show it all with pictures: https://carebirds.com/identify-a-budgie-male-or-female-by-its-ceres-color/

I hope this help

Thanks a million for the advice! I'll check out the link that you shared! thanks for taking the time to respond!

ETinSC