Color changing nose??

[Lynx]

My parakeet Loki, that I've had for two years, seems to not want to stick to one color. When I got him his nose was turning blue, then it looked kinda purple, then almost brown, then turned blue again. It's been blue for about a year, got him a friend a few months back and now Loki's nose is puple/brown again... Help??? Don't really care if he's a she, just need to know if I should keep an eye out for eggs.

 

[GaleriaGila]

I love a good mystery... hey, budgie people, help!

I'll guess it's a boy, because I don't think the girls ever show much color. And I do recall hearing that the color mutation males can be a little varied. But I don't know!

 

[SailBoat]

I'm not sure what area you are talking about that is changing color?

The Beak and the Feathered area above the Cere are the three primary regions of the front of the Parrot.

Since the Beak may change color in the transition between a baby and an Adult that is possible, but those changes are very limited from dark near black to near clear (pink) depending on the Species. Its likely not the Beak.

The Cere (and the openings that allow a Parrot to breath) sets its color early and doesn't change over the life of the Parrot, so not likely the Cere.

That leaves the feathers along the top of the Cere and the sides of the Beak. Since this area can change color in some Species, this area is most likely what you are talking about.

These tiny feathers 'can' be effected by variations in diet and/or to a lesser degree the overall health of the Parrot. Norm color change (commonly age driven) would occur as part of a molt.

I do not have the knowledge to even guess at what color variations and/or patterns your Species can produce.

Will be interesting to hear from those that do!

 

[GailC]

The cere of a female keet while change color. It will turn brown when in breeding condition, than go back to whitish/blue when not in breeding condition. Sometimes their ceres will stay brown forever.
Looks like your girls cere is light brownish and perfectly normal.

 

[Lynx]

Thanks GailC. So Loki is a girl, huh? Poor thing. Been calling her a boy for two years.

 

[MonicaMc]

Yup! Female! And females can have blue ceres, too! Just, not the same blue as a male!

I do have pictures comparing the blue of a female vs a male, as well as various pictures of her cere going through the transitions... although I can't access the images right now...

 

[Frozengirl]

I've read some males can have female color ceres, it's a sign of cancer or thyroid / iodine issues. Not trying to scare you, chances are you probably have a female. Do you have any pictures of the cere when it was "blue" ?

 

[ParrotLover2001]

Most likely female as said above. I thought Clicky (one of my past budgies) was male, until I looked back at photos and realized that during her whole life I never noticed that he was a she.
Unless the cere was a very very deep blue, your bird is female.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

 

[GailC]

The blue between males and females are very different. males have a dark deep blue while the females is more of a pastel chalky blue. I'll try to get pics of my girl today.

To make things even more complicated, males of some morphs can have different colored ceres. Male pieds will have a pale lavender cere, same with albinos and lutinos.

I have a male pieds with a pinkish lavender cere.

 

[Lynx]

I've read some males can have female color ceres, it's a sign of cancer or thyroid / iodine issues. Not trying to scare you, chances are you probably have a female. Do you have any pictures of the cere when it was "blue" ?

Sadly no. I had a few, but they were on my old phone that would randomly delete pictures.

 

[reeb]

One of my aviary budgies had the strangest colouration of the cere for a time... half was brown, the other half blue! Her cere eventually turned completely brown, however neither I nor the vet knew why she had such a strange colouration.

I am pretty sure your budgie is a girl - mostly because girl budgies can have a range of cere colours between light blue/white and brown. Since the cere is now certainly brown, I would assume she is female.

Don’t worry toooo much about eggs, if she has nowhere to lay ( I.e no nesting box) then it is unlikely.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MonicaMc]

Here's a picture I have that shows the blue of a male vs the blue of a female. (this is one picture, cropped/edited - click to enlarge!)




That same female with different colored ceres.







(website finally working...)