Hi all. I’m new on this forum and need some help from you all. I brought a new budgie home from a local pets store and would like to know the age of the budgie. I could not find a breeder anywhere close to where I live, so unfortunately had to go pet store route. We have a plain blue female budgie that my daughter tamed. It is going through its first molt at the moment. The new budgie is supposed to become a companion to the other one if all goes well. My daughter chose the second budgie today thinking it is also a young bird due to the bands going all the way to the beak and the black eyes. After some research this afternoon I think we might have made a mistake in thinking we got a young bird.
Is there any way to tell if a recessive pied bird is young or not? I would love to attach some photos, but can not do so. It says you may not post attachments under posting permission.
Thank you for your help
From what you describe about the banding on the head of your recessive pied, it is almost certainly a young bird.
I suspect you already know that your new budgie should remain in quarantine several weeks or more before coming in contact with your older blue girl.
Thank you for the reply. Yes, we are quarantining the new bird. It took more than a month of weekly pet store visits to find a bird that we liked, so another two weeks waiting is not a problem. I was not certain if a recessive pied bird will lose its bands or not. They are dark and all the way down the face.
Hi, and welcome to the community. Congrats on bringing home your new baby. Generally, it takes about a year to know the sex of a budgie. You could do a DNA test on the new one, by taking it to an Avian vet, or, go on line and order a DNA sexing kit for a budgie.
Usually, the cere wlhich is the spot right above the beak is ivory or tan color, if it is a girl, and dark blue, or lighter blue, if a male. However, there are mutations with lighter colored feathers, and those ceres are more difficult to judge, some may even be a light pink color.
It sounds to me as though your new baby is quite young. The bars on top of the head, generally signal a young bird, and they lose those bars at about a year old. But I have seen babies who are about 12 weeks old, that do not have them. Again, due to the lighter feather coloir mutations.
Go on line and search for.....budgie and parakeet mutations. I have visited a web site at one time called The Budgie Place. They had a real good link for mutations, and it is very educational, and fun to view them, and see how beautiful all of them are.
If you go to a website called...tiny pic...you should be able to create an account, which is free, and then upload pictures, and then upload them to this URL here. You could post them in your gallery. C!ick on gallery on the top of home page.
I too recommend quarantine for 30 days. I often keep the birds in the same room, a distance away, and in separate cages. Some of my most precious and beautiful birds came from petshops. I have a budgie right now, a male called Muffin, who will be 9 years old in a couple of days. He came from a petshop.
We will welcome your updates, and pictures anytime.
Last edited by maxollie; 10-01-2019 at 09:49 AM.
Thank you for the help. I uploaded some photos to my gallery. From my internet research I feel fairly confident that she is a she! My daughter decided to name her Angel. And yes, we are quarantining the new bird. The two birds are very aware of each other and are singing very loudly to each other. Our older bird is much more active in her cage now that she’s heard the other bird. Hoping slow introduction after quarantine will be successful.
You can use photobucket if you can’t get to tiny pic last time I tried tiny pic it didn’t work.
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