How can you tell if a parakeet is a boy or a girl-the pet store people didn't know, but hey, there's got to be

Question

a way of knowing. Also, if there are two parakeets in a cage together does it matter what sex they are?

Answer 1

How do I tell a Male from a Female?
The easiest way on an adult is to look at the bump of flesh above its nose - the "cere". On a male this is blueish. On a female this is brownish. Males tend to be more likely to talk. Females love to gnaw, because one of their primary tasks in the Eucalyptus groves of their homeland was to gnaw out a nest for the baby keets. The cuttlebones you put into their cages serve not only as a good beak-trimming tool, but also a great gnawing spot.

Answer 2

If by Parakeet you mean budgie (since there are other types of parakeets out there)

Male:
Young bar head males - (the black stripe touch the beak) will have a very bright smooth pink cere.

Older males- no bars and maybe an iris ring (white ring in eye) will have a strong blue cere which will be smooth.

Albino/lutino, other red eyed mutations and Recessive pied males- the males do not get the grown up blue colour but rather keep the baby pink.

Females:
Young bar heads - these can have a range of colours from a pinky tone with white rings around the nares to a blue white all over the cere.

Older females - The cere around the age of 6 months will start to change from the baby colour to a deeper brown and will start to appear crusty. This can change depending on the time of year, this dark borwn colour normally found when the female is in breeding condition. When she isn't the brown can peel off and be a light blue colour.

Alblino/lutino, other red eyed mutations and Recessive pied - unlike the males the females of these types get the same changes as any other female.

Answer 3

It depends what you mean by a parakeet. In the UK a parakeet is a small parrot and it depends on the species wether you can tell sex from extenal markings. In the USA a parakeet is a budgerigar and the females have a pink or brown cere or nose part of the beak and on males it is blue. If you want to keep two budgies together it does not matter wether you have a single sex pair or a same sex pair, they will all get on well together usually.

Answer 4

Males, depending on their color, will usually have a blue area above their beak where their nostrils are. In some colors the blue will be a deep purple. That fleshy part is called the cere. Females' ceres will be brown and crusty when they hit breeding condition. Parakeets before the age of six months will be hard to sex as both males and females have a pink cere. Plus it changes colors a few times before it finally settles in to blue or brown. I had a few budgies I thought that were male and turned out to be female!

You can keep a male and female in the same cage but you have to really control the amount of light they get. If they get too much - say 14 hours a day- they will be stimulated to breed. The same goes for boxes and other dark toys placed in their cage. If they have a box or even a slightly darkened corner of the cage they will want to lay eggs in that area.

If you still want two birds you can keep each bird in their own cage then take them out when it's play time. That worked for my cockatiels for a long time :-) . Now I have a community cage that I keep all my birds in. As long as I watch the amount of light they get, they're okay. It really doesn't matter if you have two females or two males together in the same cage. Budgies tend to get along with everyone, no matter their sex :-) .

Answer 5

if they are about 5-6 months old you look right above the beak where the nostrils are if its blue you got a male if its brown you got a female and as long as you dont have 2 males you should be fine with no problems but while they are young you wont have a problem at all anyway and you may never but 2 males usually fight more than if you had 2 females or mixed sexes if you have only one and its a male you will have to make shure you get females for now on

Answer 6

When my daughter had a parakeet I was told that the way to tell was to look at the nostrils on the beak. If there was a band of purple(maybe pink?) color around them that meant the bird was a female. Any other color such as black, indicated a male.

Answer 7

Male parakeets have a blue cere (waxy area above the beak). Female keets have a tan cere.

Answer 8

The female's head is lighter than the male, and they have no red shoulder marking. Also, I don't think their sex matters if they're in a cage together.

Answer 9

you can tell by the color above the beak where the nostrils are. If its a light color its a female, if its brown its a male. If its still black it means its a young bird and you cant tell yet

Answer 10

Probably have to take it to the vet. With snakes the only way to be sure is too "probe" them to check for the hemi-penis, or do a blood test. Somewhat similar with birds that don't have distinct sexual patterns.