Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Just giving an update on my budgies. Amarillo is fully flighted now and his "girlfriend" Piper may not be a girl after all (still not sure). Piper is finally starting to get her flight feathers back after the person who clipped her mangled them. It looked like they were actually trying to cut them in some weird pattern. I'm still hoping she may be female but her cere is starting to get a blue tint to it. I did finally find out that Amarillo is split with blue so I should get albinos if Piper is female. If my lutino was split with another color what kind of babies do you think I would get? Both are eating seed and I have finally got them eating greens. All they will eat so far is parsley and carrot greens but it's a start.


Your Friends,
Robert Blake
Amarillo
Piper

Welcome back! Female budgies can have a light blue tint to the cere when they're not in breeding condition - I used to have a budgie hen whose cere cycled between pale blue and tan. But if the cere turns deep blue then she's a he.

For potential mutation colors in the babies, the possibilities are just about endless. There are a LOT of budgie mutations and I don't know how many of them are common. It'll be interesting to see what turns up in the nestbox. I got some surprises from my cockatiels, and they don't have nearly as many mutations as budgies do.

Parsley and carrot tops are stem-shaped veggies so they appeal to your birds' natural instincts. They eat mostly grass seed in the wild and probably chew on the grass stems too. Cilantro is another stem-shaped veggie so they might like that. If you have access to pesticide-free lawn grass you can offer some of that, and unripe grass seed is a definite bonus. Broccoli florets often meet with approval because they look like unripe seed heads.

Isn't there something about the ring around their eye too?
Hers is gray but I can't remember if you can tell from that or not. It seems like I saw somewhere that males typically have a grey ring around the eyes but I might be wrong.

Amarillo is also way more active than Piper. He will dance in front of her while he's scooting back and forth along his perch. I'm hoping I have a male and female because I really want to see babies hatching and whatnot. Do you have a rough idea what it costs to have them DNA sexed by any chance?

DNA testing is usually $20 if you collect the sample yourself and send it to a lab. The price can go up to an arm and a leg if you have a vet do it.

I don't have time to look up the eye ring info right now. But I think eye rings can vary depending on what mutations the bird has.

wow definitely thought it would be more than that. I'm going to have it done then so I know for sure. I was thinking it was going to be in the $200 range for each bird lol.

If you go through a vet they might charge $100+ per bird. If there are any bird clubs in your area it's possible they might do take the sample for a small fee - my local bird club will take blood from a toenail for a $5 donation. A pet shop that focuses on birds and offers bird grooming services could probably do it too. It's not hard to take the sample yourself, but a lot of us don't have the heart to pluck feathers or intentionally clip a toenail too short.

Avian Biotech is the most popular testing lab but lately my anti-virus software doesn't like their website so something might be wrong there. This is the lab that my local bird club recommends: http://www.petdnaservicesaz.com/avian-testing/ It's in Arizona and they recommend it to support a local business, not because it's any better than the other labs.

I already have some feathers from both I saved from moults. I think there may actually be a bird club around here i'll have to check it out.

Molted feathers don't work, they have to be freshly plucked to have DNA on the end of the quills. They say that plucking the feathers doesn't hurt the bird, and from what I've seen this seems to be true. But I still might not have the nerve to do it myself.