how do you sex budgies

[wez]

im looking at getting into budgie breeding! i have 4 types of finches and a few weeros but have always liked budgies! how do you sex them?

[robert]

Wez.Just found this from the links section. Hope of use
www.budgietalk.com/budgiegender.html
from Robert and Precious
Also freespace.virgin.net/cobber.budgies/petstarter/sexingbabes.html

[vankarhi]

males have a blue cere (fleshy bit around their nostrils) females are brown....that is in adults.

Now very young birds like before coming out of the nest and up to about 2 months of age are different. The males have an almost pinkish purplish cere....kind of looks a bit sore (not red or inflamed though) while the females have a whitish cere, but as they get older it changes and the girls can look slightly whitish blueish....but when mature the males are definetly blue and females definetly brown ceres.

[AussieBirds]

Not much more to say really except if your not sure offer your finger to tha bird and if it bites really hard and hangs on it's a female.

John

[wez]

haha cheers john!!!! thanx for all your info guys!

[vankarhi]

yeah I forgot that one John lol I remember the females biting more so than the males. lol

[madaussie]

Mar 7, 2009 14:15:09 GMT 10 AussieBirds said:

Not much more to say really except if your not sure offer your finger to tha bird and if it bites really hard and hangs on it's a female.

John

Just like humans
(( runs for cover ))
j

[vankarhi]

Oh Madaussie it is like that is it ;D you had better watch out now

[angelicvampyre]

I have to disagree with hen biting more my cocks can bite really hard. Also the Blue vs brown ceres work for normals but once you get into pied etc... forget it

[Karen]

So true G! Many of my boys bite alot harder than the girls.
My Boris girl hardly bites at all except when she's breeding then it's all fingers for themselves!
Recessive Pied, Albino (white feathers with red eyes) & Lutino (yellow feathers with red eyes) males have a fleshy/pink/purple cere (bit above the beak). Think there may be another couple but can't think of them.
In all cases all females have a brown/beige/brownish white coloured cere. Oftentimes the cere will indicate whether they are in season but sometimes a hen with a pale beige cere can and will still breed. A really thick dark brown and crusty looking cere means a hen is in prime breeding condition.
You can breed budgies for 30+ years and still not know many things about them - there is no such thing as an expert on budgies. Many people know alot but, really budgies are a lifetime of learning and loving them. Once you start on budgies you won't want to ever give them up - they become part of your blood.

[madaussie]

bubb"gs awww
j

[vankarhi]

I think the biting was actually meant to be a joke ;D I had budgies as a kid and I bred them if that is what you want to call it ;D and I did actually find that a large number of hens bit, but that doesn't mean the males don't bite either.......I don't think that comment was meant to offend anyone......I just thought it was funny.

And for me that is how I sex budgies and so far I have not had too much trouble with it. I sexed Peppa via the internet that way and I think I had him picked out at about 1 week of age and I was correct with Gooka's (Katie) other budgies from the same clutch and they are not normal colours either.

[AussieBirds]

Mar 7, 2009 18:24:44 GMT 10 angelicvampyre said:

I have to disagree with hen biting more my cocks can bite really hard. Also the Blue vs brown ceres work for normals but once you get into pied etc... forget it

To be honest with you angelicvampire & Birdcrazy your wrong on both counts, I have been breeding budgies for around 50 years and had 100 breeding pair twelve months ago, exactly as Tracey says the cere is the way to tell the sex of budgies, it may vary in intensity and shade of colour, depending on the type of budgie, but Blue for boys and bone coloured for girls, as far as biting is concerned I would rather be bitten by a male than a female anytime the hen will draw blood if she gets hold of you properly, not that I get bitten much these days ..................by budgies that is

[Karen]

Got to say more female budgies have drawn blood from me than males. I prefer to keep my fingers out of their beak range (not always very successfully!).

Sorry John but you are in error with the cere colours for males. Let me show you.
I'll pop up some photo's of different colour cere's for some of the different varieties of male budgies.



Here is an Albino boy, note the purple/pink/flesh coloured cere:




Here is Boris' dad, he's a Recessive Pied (no iris ring) his cere is a purple/pink/flesh colour:




Lutino male - purple/pink/flesh coloured cere:




White Lacewing male - purple/pink/flesh coloured cere:




Yellow Lacewing male (on left) - purple/pink/flesh coloured cere:




Spangle boy - blue cere:




Here is a Double Factor Spangle boy - blue cere:




Dominant Pied male (has iris ring) he has a blue cere:




Cobalt boy - blue cere:

[vankarhi]

The purple pink colour is what colour the males are when they are babies Karen.......don't they develop their adult blue colourings?

[Karen]

No, the recessive pieds, albino's, lutino's, lacewings retain that colour for life. Some are really bright with the colour others are paler. The white Lacewing male above is a nestfeather but his cere will brighten when he becomes an adult.
In the early years those ones used to confuse me, I thought they were female at first. I've been learning about budgies for over 25 years and there is still much I don't know. That's the beauty of budgies - you always have things to learn.

[AussieBirds]

As I said "it may vary in intensity and shade of colour, depending on the type of budgie," and this is exactly what I am talking about, In all my years of breeding budgies I have sexed them this way and have never missed yet, believe me I have bred a lot of budgies.

John

[avinet]

Mar 7, 2009 18:24:44 GMT 10 angelicvampyre said:

I have to disagree with hen biting more my cocks can bite really hard.

I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that in general the hens bite much more than the cocks. Last year was an average year, and we sold about 750 budgies. I handled each of those birds when they came into the shop, catching them out of whatever crappy transport box or cage they arrived in and transferring them into quarantine cages. I probably handled about half of them again after the quarantine was over (the staff transfer some of them) when they were moved to the budgie aviary or selling cage. I also handled many again when they were sold. So in the year I caught and handled well over a thousand budgies. I have been doing that since the early 1990's.

Based on my sample of well over 10,000 budgies, the hens bite harder and more often. With most cocks, a bite (I should say an attempted bite since I rarely get bitten these days) is almost an afterthought, but with the hens it is a deliberate malicious attempt.

cheers,

Mike

[angelicvampyre]

maybe my hens are just more mellow then yours I have some nasty cocks but most of mine don't bite or if they do its a nibble. Then again having said that people can't believe that i handle my avairy green cheeks with no gloves only got bitten really bad once other then that just nibbles here and there. Maybe it's the way I handle them or the Jazz music I play them But outside about three cocks none of mine bite that bad

[Karen]

Everyone has different experiences with hens versus cocks biting.
No one is right and no one is wrong. Experience is experience.