Is My Pet Budgie a Girl Or a Boy?

So, you are a new pet owner in which you acquired a budgie as a pet. Either you forgot to ask the pet shop on which you got the budgie about its gender or the pet budgie is given to you as a gift and the one who gave you do not know its gender as well.

Most birds species that we know are usually difficult to tell whether they are a boy or a girl on just by looking at them. But you are lucky since it is budgies we are talking about. For a new pet owner like you, it might be a bit difficult to determine your budgies gender but there are some simple tips in which we will share to you to help you with this simple problem.

It might be a different story for veteran pet owners who have owned a budgie or budgies but it is still a good topic to read to and to compare on how you determine your budgie’s gender. It would be easier if your budgie can talk and just tell you what their gender is, but that is not the case.

Budgie’s Behavior

The male budgie are the calm type of budgie and also the social type. Male budgies tend to have a strong bond with other male budgies in the group. But since you can’t observe this personality yet because you don’t have other budgies, the other thing to observe is that a male budgie is not aggressive towards a new stranger, in that case towards you as their new owner.

Female budgies on the other hand can be very sweet to you if have taken good care of her and bonded with her a lot and be very aggressive to strangers who they do not know. They tend to be aggressive because they are inclined to defend their territory or their nest. It is their motherly instincts. Females also nibble on things a lot more, like their toys or whatever they have inside their cage.

Their personalities are just a hint about their genders. It can be unreliable on determining their gender because budgies have different personalities depending on how they were raised. Some female budgies might act like a male budgie because she lived with other male budgies before you got them and she just mimicked their behaviors and the same goes if a male budgie lived with females before you got him.

Budgie’s Looks

The way the budgie looks is mostly the one used to determine a budgie’s gender. If you look at a budgie you will not find any difference between a male and female. But once you look closer at their beaks, there is a colored swollen patch (which is called a cere). Determining the color of the cere is the key on unravelling the budgie’s gender.

Male budgies will always have a dark blue cere. Unless the budgie is an albino then it is another story. Young budgies will have a purple cere. Give the budgie a few more months to grow, if the purplish cere turns to dark blue then you have a male budgie.

On the other hand, female budgies are the cause of confusion even for some veteran pet owners. Sometimes, female budgies will also have a bluish color in their cere, and that is how people get confused. The female usually have a very light blue cere at a young age and sometimes it is almost white. There is also some clear white rings around the budgie’s nostril. But, there’s a big but, not all female budgies will have the clear white rings. Give your budgie more time to grow. Sometimes as the budgie grows, she might have a dark blue cere but will have white nostrils. There are other times her cere will have a slight shade of pink or beige or brown.

The Most Obvious of All Obvious

This goes without say, if your budgie lays eggs then it is 100% sure she is a female.

Still Unsure?

If you are still not sure about the gender, the best thing you can do is ask the pet store in which you bought the budgie or ask an avian veterinarian. You can have your bird check up too while asking the gender. Checking up on the cere of the budgie by yourself can be confusing because you will need the budgie to grow up to determine the gender. There are some experts who are also not sure about determining the budgie’s gender because of how confusing their ceres color turn to. As much as i can say, they best way to know the gender is whether or not the budgie lays eggs or not. That way you won’t get confused. But it would be very weird and awkward if you have already named your budgie with a male name and then it lays some eggs.

The moral of this story, decorate the bird cage of your budgie and name her or him according to gender. That way, it won’t be weird and awkward.

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