Male or Female (pic attached)

[ohsnapitscharity]

Is this a male or female? Also, what is it’s pattern/coloring referred to as? I bring it home Friday!

 

[ParrotLover2001]

I'd say Male, but it's too young to tell, its also pied, so it might affect the cere color.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

 

[ohsnapitscharity]

I'd say Male, but it's too young to tell, its also pied, so it might affect the cere color.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

What age would you guess? And pied blue? Is that the proper term?

 

[OldEnough2KnowBetter]

Total amateur here… but just to play I would guess blue base recessive pied less than three months, before first molt, which would mean the jury is still out for (quite) awhile on gender as the cere most likely will not turn blue even if male so have to watch if it stays smooth pink or crusts up some as a female.

 

[ChristaNL]

Hmmm, just judging by the somewhat tougher looking hide and strong musculature... I'd say the owner is a male.

 

[ParrotLover2001]

Sent from my Galaxy s8

What age would you guess? And pied blue? Is that the proper term?

Around 3 months. Blue recessive pied.
With recessive pieds the cere might not change to blue in males and stay pink/purple, but females will get a crusty brown cere.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

 

[LeslieA]

My Tommy's crew stayed pink.

Here are two good sites. The Wikihow site is especially helpful to beginners and for young budgies.

https://www.budgie-info.com/budgie-sexing.html

https://m.wikihow.com/Identify-Your-Budgie's-Sex?amp=1

 

[LeslieA]

Total amateur here… but just to play I would guess blue base recessive pied less than three months, before first molt, which would mean the jury is still out for (quite) awhile on gender as the cere most likely will not turn blue even if male so have to watch if it stays smooth pink or crusts up some as a female.

Another way to tell in pied is this, white rings around the nostrils means female.

 

[EllenD]

At 3 months old the bird is far too young to tell the gender. You can't properly sex a Budgie until they are at least 6 months old, and sometimes their cere color can change up to a year old. If it stays pink the bird is a male, but at only 3 months old it could change to any color at this point. So the only way to tell now would be with a DNA test...Or just continue to wait until the bird is at least 6 months old to see if the cere changes colors or not, and even then it may be too young.

 

[MonicaMc]

Around 3 months. Blue recessive pied.
With recessive pieds the cere might not change to blue in males and stay pink/purple, but females will get a crusty brown cere.

Ditto this.

Recessive pied blue male under 4 months old.

 

[EllenD]

Around 3 months. Blue recessive pied.
With recessive pieds the cere might not change to blue in males and stay pink/purple, but females will get a crusty brown cere.

Ditto this.

Recessive pied blue male under 4 months old.

Again, too young to tell. The cere may very well stay pink, indicating male, but also with pieds, when they are under 6 months old, their ceres start to change from pink/purple to blue, HOWEVER they are blue with white-rings around each nostril, indicating female, not male. Sometimes with pied when they are this young, their ceres will also turn to blue with white-rings around each nostril, indicating female, but then once are between 6 months to a year old, the white-rings around each nostril will actually fill in, and result in a solid blue cere, indicating male. So very often with pieds, when you try to sex them before they are at the very least 6 months, if not up to a year, they can go from white/cream color (female), then to solid pink (male), then to blue with white-rings around each nostril (female), to solid blue (male), all before they even hit 6 months old! So trying to sex them at 3 months old is completely pointless. You can guess, but usually you guess wrong.

I bred both American and English Budgies for a little over 20 years, and I always tried to make a concerted effort to not give their prospective owners even a guess on their new baby's gender, because I knew it would very-likely be wrong, and then they'd be angry with me...And I did get several of those phone-calls over the years, where I stressed to the people when they were picking out their new babies that they were just too young to identify their genders, and they would always say the same thing: "Well, if you had to guess right now though, what would you say it is? We won't hold you to this!" Yeah right, then 6 months later I'd get a nasty phone call, or a nasty email with a current photo of their Budgie attached, and them yelling at me because I "told them that the baby they chose was definitely a male", and now it's cere is tan in color, it's a female, and they didn't want a female because it won't talk, or it's going to lay eggs, etc.". So after a few of these calls and emails I decided that I had a rule, that I would never again even guess on the gender of a baby, and would simply tell them that until their Budgie is 6 months old they shouldn't try to guess, as it's cere may change colors multiple times before it's truly evident what it's gender is...So if they want to know the gender immediately, then they needed to have a DNA test done. And I actually sent away for several DNA tests over the years for people, at their expense, as it was that important to them that they know the gender before buying a baby.

My point is that in my professional and personal Budgie experience, at 3 months old with a pied baby, I wouldn't even begin to guess. I have actually had a couple pieds that had very dark blue ceres at 6 months old, but they had just the faintest white rings around each nostril, and I was quite certain that they were males, just due to the deepness or brightness of the blue color, and I was sure that the really faint, white rings around each nostril would fill-in to solid blue...So I put them in with several known-females to try to see if they would bond with one of them, only to have their ceres turn tan or brown at 8 months old or 10 months old, and obviously they were females. More commonly with the pied, their ceres appear pink from very early on, and they stay pink for quite a long time, even when they are close to a year old, so you assume that they are males, and then suddenly they turn tan, cream, brown, etc. and you know that they are obviously females...And the blue with white-rings around each nostril often fools people too, they just see a bright blue cere and assume it's a male. The point I'm trying to make is yes, you can certainly make an educated-guess now, at 3 months old, but do not be at all surprised if your bird's cere changes color, if not changes color multiple times up until it is around a year old.

 

[MonicaMc]

Ellen, you're right that recessive pied budgies can be more difficult to sex at a young age. I still vote male.