how can you tell the sex of young budgies?

Question

Is there any way to visually sex them?

when i say young i mean just weaned.

Answer 1

When budgies are young, their ceres (fleshy part where their nostrils are) are usually white-ish/purple-ish/pink-ish. As they get older, they're ceres turn either blue or light brown/tan colors. The ones with blue ceres are males, and the brown, females. Once a young parakeet has a stripe-less forehead, spots on their lower cheek feathers (usually black or blue spots), and have silver irises instead of the pure black eyes, they have matured sexually. This is the time that the color of the cere will determine its sex. Another way you can tell the difference between them is their pelvic bones. Place your finger just below and between the legs of the parakeet and you should feel two bones that come together. If the bones are almost touching, it is a boy, and if they are far apart, it is a girl. This is because the females eggs must pass through these bones. In birds that aren't sexually mature, it is usually hard to tell. Baby parakeets' pelvic bones haven't separated yet, so they will all appear to be male. My suggestion is that you wait until it is mature (if it isn't already), and then use those two techniques to determine whether you have a male or female. :]

[[ The pelvic bone thing is true of all birds, so if anybody ever needs to know what gender their bird is, that is a sure-fire way to tell]]

Hope I helped ^_^
- Becky


Edit: To Animal_girl - Yes, they CAN be weaned. Mammals are not the only animals that are weaned. Any animal, including birds, that slowly stops feeding their young and soon refuses to feed them, is "weaning" their young. Budgies and pigeons are prime examples of this because they both feed their young "pigeon milk" that is reguritated from the parents crop into the babie's mouth, slowly containing more and more solids until the baby is able to digest solid food - making them a little bit more like mammals in a way. Just figured you'd like to know that.

Answer 2

From about 14,weeks the Cere or Nostrils of a Budgie will change from cream to Blue for a Boy, cream to to brown for a Girl. That is the simplest way to find out.

Answer 3

it is very hard to sex young budgies, and if it's not a "normal" budgie it'll be a little harder yet, Like if it's albino, recessive pied, The male's cere ( the fleshy part where their nostrils are) stays a Pink/ purple color all their lives

NORMAL rule of thumb ( but it is NOT Always right I'm finding this out on my own) is Blue cere is male, but some males also have a pinkish/ purple cere

Females have a pink cere with white around the nostrils,. when they become mature ( old enough to breed) their cere will turn white, tan, brown and look crusty


I've got one right now that I don't know if it's a boy or a girl it shows signs of BOTH ( some websites have "personality" ways of Sexing your bird, for example, a male budgie supposedly bobs its head and is more vocal,

well mine bobs it's head, But is only vocal when my other ones are and then that is not a all the time thing either, my FOR SURE male was sitting on a perch beside my unsure sexed one yesterday just chirping, away singing his own little song or what not, and my other one just sat there content watching him and even started falling asleep ( which i thought was cute he was singing the other one to sleep)

but just because it was not being vocal like my male does not mean it is a female, because this is the same Budgie that will bob it's head when Id come home, or a song came on my radio that it really liked, or I was feeding/water it


but to be completely honest The only way to be 100% Postitive on the gender of your bird is a DNA test, you can search for it on line i just put DNA testing for birds in my search bar, it's allot cheaper then most vets

Answer 4

You can tell the sex of parakeets by the color of their nose. A deep blue is a boy, and a light pink is a girl. But if they are young, you might not be able to tell just yet. Wait til they are a little older.

Contrary to what several people said, DNA testing is not always necessary. Not for parakeets anyway, since it IS possible to visually sex them. But for other parrots, such as cockatiels, the gender cannot be found out by physical traits, and DNA testing is helpful, and not too expensive. About 25 dollars here.

Answer 5

The cere on a young budgie is pinkish-blueish which doesn't give a lot away. When they get a bit older, this solidifies into a more intense blue (male) or any other color than blue (female). There is always a blood test (DNA), which is considered completely reliable.

Answer 6

I don't think it's truly possible to sex just-weaned budgies, but here are 2 articles that give some suggestions:

http://freespace.virgin.net/cobber.budgies/petstarter/sexingbabes.html

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Birds-General-2349/budgie-questions-2.htm

Answer 7

male budgies have colorful beaks , and females have a brownish color(like a tan) good luck.
I would ask someone who had experience sexing them like a vet assistant or a pet store worker. Good luck.

Answer 8

Well, since you r talking about young budgies my advice is that you take them to the vet for DNA sexing..... surgical procedure

Answer 9

You wont really know until they DNA tested or fully grown, males have blue around their nostrals & females have brown. But I have found that the females bite more then males, so if you have a baby that bites alot more then another it's probably going to be a female

Answer 10

First of all, birds can not be 'weaned' because they aren't mammels. You can tell by looking at their cere. If their cere is blue, then it's a boy. If their cere is pinkish-yellow, then they are a girl.

Hope this helps!
Good luck!