Post by cmt5 on Feb 9, 2014 17:03:02 GMT
Hello all,
We got a new flock member recently to add to our two American parakeets and English Budgie. He/she is an American Parakeet/English Budgie cross. The breeder we got him/her from was not certain of gender. He had felt pretty certain he was a boy, but was starting to reverse his opinion because white has developed around the bird's nares. One minute, it looks like a boy and the next a girl. He was leaning toward girl when we picked the bird up.
I know this much about this little bird, it is 7 weeks old, is a cross like I mentioned, and it's mother is a violet English Budgie. I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but this little one is actually pretty violet. The entire breast is violet, and the back is deeper with the rump feathers very dark cobalt blue and the tail feathers are navy blue. When his/her wings are spread, in between all the feathers is navy blue.
We got this bird because wanted to balance our flock. We already had to boys and one girl. The girl is very mean to both the boys. She is beyond dominant. In fact, our avian vet described her as "the meanest little budgie I've ever worked with". She is hand tame though with us, and we can feed her by hand and she will hang out on your shoulder (as long as she feels like it). She really deals on our English Budgie and we have to supervise them during out of cage time because she will often pull out huge clumps of his feathers for no reason. She also bullies her cage mate, but only during out of cage time. I mention this because we have allowed the new bird to interact with the other three out of cage and our hen is protective of him/her and also seems to be taking a back seat to the new bird. For example, when the birds get a treat of millet, she always hogs it and will only allow the others to have some when she has lost interest. The new bird challenged her and she actually took a back seat. She has now been taking a back seat regularly, or being protective. Does this mean that the new bird is also likely a hen?
I've included some pictures where the new bird is near our other girl who is white. Hopefully you can see that in some pics the new bird's cere appears solid purple and in others you can see that there sometimes seems to be white around the nares. None were taken with a flash, just in natural light.
Any thoughts are appreciated!
Carolyn
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky028_zps02bc1cca.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/skye002_zps5b5bb4ee.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky001_zps850fce14.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky008_zpseb92a87e.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky011_zps7a59ec49.jpg.html?sort=3&o=26
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky010_zps7716c1a3.jpg.html?sort=3&o=27
We got a new flock member recently to add to our two American parakeets and English Budgie. He/she is an American Parakeet/English Budgie cross. The breeder we got him/her from was not certain of gender. He had felt pretty certain he was a boy, but was starting to reverse his opinion because white has developed around the bird's nares. One minute, it looks like a boy and the next a girl. He was leaning toward girl when we picked the bird up.
I know this much about this little bird, it is 7 weeks old, is a cross like I mentioned, and it's mother is a violet English Budgie. I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but this little one is actually pretty violet. The entire breast is violet, and the back is deeper with the rump feathers very dark cobalt blue and the tail feathers are navy blue. When his/her wings are spread, in between all the feathers is navy blue.
We got this bird because wanted to balance our flock. We already had to boys and one girl. The girl is very mean to both the boys. She is beyond dominant. In fact, our avian vet described her as "the meanest little budgie I've ever worked with". She is hand tame though with us, and we can feed her by hand and she will hang out on your shoulder (as long as she feels like it). She really deals on our English Budgie and we have to supervise them during out of cage time because she will often pull out huge clumps of his feathers for no reason. She also bullies her cage mate, but only during out of cage time. I mention this because we have allowed the new bird to interact with the other three out of cage and our hen is protective of him/her and also seems to be taking a back seat to the new bird. For example, when the birds get a treat of millet, she always hogs it and will only allow the others to have some when she has lost interest. The new bird challenged her and she actually took a back seat. She has now been taking a back seat regularly, or being protective. Does this mean that the new bird is also likely a hen?
I've included some pictures where the new bird is near our other girl who is white. Hopefully you can see that in some pics the new bird's cere appears solid purple and in others you can see that there sometimes seems to be white around the nares. None were taken with a flash, just in natural light.
Any thoughts are appreciated!
Carolyn
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky028_zps02bc1cca.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/skye002_zps5b5bb4ee.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky001_zps850fce14.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky008_zpseb92a87e.jpg.html
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky011_zps7a59ec49.jpg.html?sort=3&o=26
s1345.photobucket.com/user/cmt636/media/Skye/Sky010_zps7716c1a3.jpg.html?sort=3&o=27
