Is this true? Breast Bone Sexing...

[Nakiska]

Hi everyone!

We just got our first Green cheek conure, and I was reading in a book and realized throughout the entire book it mentioned nothing about how to sex your bird. So I looked it up online and found that there is no visual difference between male and female however ONE site mentioned this:

Run your finger down your birds breast bone and if it splits before the tail/vent then it's most likely a female and if it stays together to the tail/vent then it's most likely a male.

I was wondering if you folks who have had your birds dna'd...could please check their birds and confirm or deny that statement....I'm just curious. It makes sense to me, because if the bone splits it makes room for eggs in females.

I'm told the little guy we bought is "probably" a male, I did the breast bone check and his is together all the way to the vent...so maybe the store was right??? Or maybe ever GCC is that way.

Also, out of curiousity, would female conures eventually lay eggs? Even without a mate, such as a cockatiel would?

I have a friend who's had her GCC for 4 years, said it's a female but she's never laid eggs and has never been DNA'd..so I told her to go home and check her birds breast bone, as I want to know if this method proves to be true or false.

Thanks everyone!

Toni

 

[Garnet]

Years ago breeders used the technique you are describing to try to determine a birds sex. If the bird is mature, there is a definate difference in the spacing between the end of the breast bone and vent. I've used it in the past and it proved to be correct, however, with the advent of dna testing, breeders do not commonly rely on this method any longer. Sometimes a female will have a very narrow canal and it makes determining sex impossible without dna testing or surgical sexing.

To answer your question, I've had it proved correct about 70% of the time and sometimes it is just impossible to tell as each bird develops differently and some males have a wider canal and some females a more narrow canal.

I have a female gcc that does not have a mate and she has laid eggs three times in the last five years. She normally only lays one egg and promptly abandons the egg.

 

[nofearengineer]

Run your finger down your bird's breast bone and if it splits your finger open, time to DNA sex it.

There! I fixed it for you! Just kidding!!

 

[Nakiska]

Run your finger down your bird's breast bone and if it splits your finger open, time to DNA sex it.

There! I fixed it for you! Just kidding!!

Hahaha!!! Thanks!

 

[Steph]

Run your finger down your bird's breast bone and if it splits your finger open, time to DNA sex it.

There! I fixed it for you! Just kidding!!

Hahaha!!! Thanks!

Hahhahaha thanks you two, you just gave me a good laugh !

 

[Rio Mom]

The breeder I got both Rio and River from thought they were males based on pelvic bone shape. River was only 8 weeks when I got him, and she thought he was male a couple weeks before that. I had them both dna'd and she was correct both times.

 

[Nakiska]

Nofear....you're just tooo darn funny!