Hi! I was a member here a long time ago, I joined back in 2007 (Emmer-Chan). Anyways, it’s been a while since I’ve had budgies and I have agreed to look after a friends budgie for a couple of weeks while she’s on holiday. His name is Hato and I was told he is a boy, but after she left and I actually had a proper look at him, I’m really starting to wonder if he might actually be a she. I would like to be completely certain before I let her know that Hato is actually Hatty ; he’s quite young, Going through a moult right now, I would appreciate your thoughts guys ;
Welcome back!
You are right, Hato's cere is almost identical to my five month old female budgie's cere, namely pinkish-white.
If Hato was instead a young male, the cere should have been pink/purple.
So, yes, Hato is actually Hatty.
Thanks guys, I informed the girl that she does infact have a female budgie but she's slightly in denial about it as she said her vet told her it was male. He said there was too much blue under the nostrils, but I'm guessing he must not be an avian vet or know much about budgies because young females have blueish ceres. Oh well, at least in a few months when her cere turns brown it will be kinda hard to deny
Sadly, a lot of vets, even avian vets, aren’t experts in the area of sexing budgies. So hopefully your friend comes out of denial about it lol.
If your friend is interested in learning how to best care for their budgie, with all the latest up to date information, have them join us. We usually discourage people asking about others’ budgies, and would like owners to join.
Please do encourage your friend to join the forum.
Truly, the very BEST advice anyone can offer a new budgie owner is to take the time to read ALL of the stickies throughout the various Talk Budgie forums as well as the Budgie Articles we have posted.
These are great resources for Talk Budgie members and have a wealth of reliable information which will assist you to learn the best practices in caring for budgies for their optimal health and well-being.
Really a boy?
