How to determine the age of a budgerigar?

By purchasing a feathered mischievous, we become attached to him so much that the sudden loss of a pet can break our hearts. When you know that the budgerigar has already exceeded 15 years, the understanding comes that the bird can stay with us for another day, month, year, at best 5 years.

You can find out exactly the age of a parrot if it is a chick before the first molt or a bird from a breeders’ club.

Babies contrast with adults:

• their plumage is more faded (this feature is visible if an adult parrot is next to a young chick);
• the wave goes all over the head to the wax;
• eyes resemble black buttons (red – if it is lutino);

• there is no white iris around the pupil;
• the color of the wax is light pink;

• throat spots are chaotic and do not have pronounced boundaries and size;
• the paws of young parrots are smooth, like glossy, with age the scales become rougher and are clearly visible;
• the youngest parrots (up to 2 months) have a black spot on the beak, which disappears over time;
• budgerigar chicks under 10 weeks of age have the shortest tail.

A striped wave on the head of the chick may be present up to 4 months. The brightness of this pattern depends on the type of color of the budgerigar.

The iris around the pupil occurs when the age of the bird exceeds 6 months.

Keep in mind that budgerigar colors such as albino and lutino may not have a “blackened” beak. Also, the chicks of celandine parrots do not have a wavy pattern on their heads.

As for the wax, in albino, lutino, celandine and recessively variegated budgerigars, it remains pink or light purple.

It is very difficult to determine the age of males of these colors by cere; in females, the color of the cere changes after puberty, as in budgerigars of other colors.

How to determine the sex of a budgerigar, you will learn here.

If you buy a parrot from a professional breeder, in this case, the bird will have a ring on its foot with the year of birth, the name of the registered nursery (nominal), country or its number, which will save you from guessing how old your budgerigar is. Even 9-day-old chicks become ringed, so the accuracy of the age of the bird is not in doubt.

The ring must be solid, otherwise there is a risk of becoming a victim of charlatans who, under the guise of breeders, will sell you an adult bird, like a one-year-old parrot, simply by holding the ring with tongs.

Foot ring:

Amateur breeders sometimes make homemade rings or buy standard, non-named ones in order to avoid mixing blood among relatives in a domestic bird flock and to select stronger wavy ones. These cases are normal in the practice of breeding a large number of budgerigars and establishing the age of acquired birds in such individuals will not be a problem.

Rings on the paws of budgerigars are their identity card, an official document.

Photo of what young budgerigars look like:

Adult budgerigars: