When choosing a parrot, you always want to acquire another small feathered pet in order to educate it and enjoy how it grows. How not to make a mistake at a pet store and find a parrot of the right age?
Instructions
Step 1
Determining the age of a budgerigar is quite difficult even for a specialist, but there are signs by which you can distinguish between a chick and a mature bird.
Look at the wax - this is a skin formation that is located above the beak of a parrot. Its color helps determine not only the approximate age of the bird, but also its gender. In young parrots, the wax is pale, dull. In females, it is unsaturated blue, and in males, it is pale purple. As the chicks grow older, the beeswax acquires a more saturated shade, and becomes bright in very adult birds. A mature female parrot can be identified by brown wax, and the male by bright blue.
Step 2
The color of the beak itself also helps in determining the age of the parrot. Young chicks have a black beak. As it matures, it turns yellow, while the black color decreases to a small dark speck on the beak. In very adult birds, this speck will be barely noticeable.
Step 3
At the age of three months, budgies molt for the first time. If the bird has not yet reached this age, the plumage on its head will be completely wavy, and the relief will begin from the beak itself. In addition, the color of the chicks is usually paler than that of adult birds, the contrast on the “waves” is less noticeable, and there is no “mask” (white or light yellow, depending on the type of parrot). The parrot acquires the familiar bright color and "waves" at 4-6 months.
Step 4
Parrot chicks quickly grow up and take on the shape of the body of an adult bird. However, you can notice a young parrot by the length of the feathers on the tail: they are much smaller than in adult birds. However, when the bird reaches one and a half months of age, it is much more difficult to notice this difference.
Step 5
The parrot's eyes will also help determine its age. In young parrots, the eyes are completely black, since the color of the pupil merges with the iris. Due to this, the eyes appear bulging. An adult parrot has a white iris around its pupil.
Step 6
Budgerigars can live up to 15 years with proper care. In this case, it will be impossible to determine the age of the parrot. By external signs, one can only distinguish between a chick and a sexually mature bird.
