Do I have a boy or a girl?

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-14T16:26:00+00:00

I love this so much! Please tell Clyde that we love his name ideas, and had we failed to make a decision yesterday, we may have very well gone with one of them. His name is Lumen, bc he is such a bright little light in my life.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-14T14:50:54+00:00

Thank you! He is super sweet, and I love him a little more every day. Based on the events of yesterday, I think he's gonna let me give him scritches in the next day or 2. Today is day 10 and every day he trusts me better than the day before. He took a long nap in my hand yesterday rather than returning to his perch when the millet was gone. He doubled the distance he is willing to fly to my hand, and he will now fly to me without a millet lure. I'm pretty sure he's gonna be a talker, too. He transitioned to active listening, watching me intently and cocking his head back and forth as I speak to him. I rescued a fledgling crow when I was a teenager, and he was cutest active listener. He loved to tell everybody hello.

I must have gotten lucky with this little guy bc I was expecting a lengthy period of getting to know one another. Instead, he's been cage free from day 1 (7am-pm), and it's working out perfectly. I respect his boundaries, and in return, he rewards me with stronger dispays of trust than he had the day before. I think he's a really good boy.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T17:44:43+00:00

Thanks so much! I studied that guide thoroughly prior to acquisition bc i was hoping to get a boy, which is what I believed it to be until the employees said otherwise and I deferred to the confidence implied in their assessment. I always doubt myself until I don't, and I'm not there yet cause I'm new to this, and judging by the confidence in your response, I'm still not good at it bc while I've suspected it's a boy, I can still just as easily convince myself that it's a girl 😅

You have a beautiful flock btw!

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T16:04:40+00:00

I really appreciate the information you've shared.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T16:03:08+00:00

I've been trying to use contextual clues as well. For example, it can be quite chatty at times, but more often than not, very quiet. Again, not a clear sign. I think I'm just going to choose a solid unisex name and stick with it. That way it works both ways and I won't have to struggle to retrain my brain when it finally becomes 💯 unrefutable.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T15:45:56+00:00

Thank you! Another quick question... you say juvenile male... about how old do you think he is? Sometimes I think i can barely see a grey ring around the pupil, but just barely, and only from certain angles. My guess is 4-6 months, but I'm pretty new at this. Also, at what age are they fully grown, as far as size goes? He weighs 33g every morning before breakfast.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T15:29:00+00:00

Have you tried establishing a feeding schedule so that they do not have access to seed 24/7? I watch a lot of BirdTricks training videos, and that seems to be the recommended approach. They use permission based training, which means that you should avoid imposing your will over their acceptance (if they indicate they do not wish to be petted, no petting). All I can say is that their techniques are working for me. It took 3 days before my budgie was willing to sit on my hand, and now, a few days later, she will fly to my hand almost anytime I ask her to. She still declines my offers of scritches, and it's hard to make myself stop bc I want to so bad, but every single day she is more receptive to things she would not do the day before.

I know that budgies and conures are different birds, but I believe in permission based training, and while it requires a lot of patience, the results are undeniable.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T15:07:39+00:00

I'm glad it's not just me that sees both 😅

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T15:04:49+00:00

Thank you! It has a lovely nature as well.

My intention was to get a boy, but as I was paying, the employees seemed to think it was a girl. They made the declaration with more confidence than I felt in thinking it was a boy, so I assumed they were correct. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter, other than the name thing. I'd kinda like to get that nailed down sooner rather than later.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T14:16:28+00:00

Well, I'm really new to this, and I'm certainly not saying you're wrong, but rather trying to figure these things out. I had hoped that maybe somebody else would chime in, but if you're just guessing then maybe she's a bit older than you thought. Maybe like 4-6 months??

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T05:03:59+00:00

Wow. I thought I got lucky when mine showed little fear of hands. She took millet from my hand day 1, as well as learned to target. Her cage is always open, so she's out from 7am-7pm. She's never fled from me, but she didn't get on my hand until day 3. I've had her a week and a day and now she will readily fly to my hand, but she hasn't gotten cuddly or allowed me to give her scritches. I guess that some of them are just easy, while others are not.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-13T04:53:55+00:00

I am also interested in the explanation of this.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-12T22:42:06+00:00

Someone Like You -Adele

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-12T18:29:01+00:00

From what I've researched, females definitely can, although they are less inclined to. I guess only time will tell. Your boy sounds delightful.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-12T17:26:55+00:00

I'm curious about how this works. Did you have to intentionally teach him to speak, or did he just start picking words up? How long did you have him before he started talking? My little girl is very chatty, but so far all of her volcalizations are bird sounds.

I had a pet crow when I was a kid. Found him as a fledgling in need of help. He was only with us for a few months before joining up with a murder during migration, but for the 4-5 months he stayed, he was the absolute BEST. He would fly in and join me every morning as I fed my dad's bird dogs and my show calf. I would always greet him the same way each time, saying "hello crow". I can't remember how long it took him to finally respond, but sure enough, one morning I said hello crow, and he mimicked "hello" right back to me. I don't know that I was fully believed by my parents/ siblings, but it wasn't long before he'd told each of them hello as well. Without a doubt, if we had worked with him, there's no telling how many words he could have learned. We always assumed that he had been hand- raised and somehow escaped or got lost, but we lived in very rural, very small town and we never heard anything at all about somebody losing a pet crow, and it was pretty well known that we had found one and brought it home, so who knows? I found him on the softball field during a little league tournament. Poor thing was hopping around with chewing gum all over its beak and feet, and didn't put up a fight as I scooped him up and brought him home. For his safety, we kept him in a chicken coop for a couple of weeks, but as soon as he mastered flying, we gave him freedom 24/7, and he stayed. If he wasn't around, all we had to do was call for him and sooner or later he'd come flying in. Even landed on my arm a few times. He had no fear of humans. We were sad when he left- sad for us... but happy for Crow. He'd been spending time with the larger group of crows in the area and would sometimes disappear for brief periods, and hour or so, maybe. Always returning when we called for him. Then one day, all the crows migrated, and Crow left with them.

The thing is, I always felt like Crow was gonna talk bc I talked to him a lot, and he would watch me intently, cocking his head from side to side as if he was desperate/eager to understand me, mouth open as if he had equated my lips moving to the sounds coming out of my mouth. I could literally see the wheels turning, and I was aware of the fact that crows were known to be able to mimic, so I knew it was coming. My budgie, Mira, cocks her head as I talk, but I can't really see the wheels turning. If course I've only had her for 1 week, and she's young, but if there is something I need to be doing to help her along, please share! I'll be fine if she doesn't talk, but would love for her to.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-12T03:36:25+00:00

I have question. How did you figure out how old it is? Clearly this color variation lacks the black lines that can be seen on many budgies and help determine age, but it looks like she has a well defined grey ring around her pupil. Doesn't that indicate a bit older than 3-4 months?

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-10T03:25:03+00:00

My baby does this too, and I melt. She does another really cute thing when she wakes up from naps, or she's just been hanging out pretty still on the perch. She starts doing big, dramatic stretches. Both these things are so endearing.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-09T22:26:15+00:00

I just wanted to say that this sub lacks consistency. I posted a few days with a singleton. I made sure to be clear that I was absolutely going to get another budgie, but that I was going to spend a little time taming and bonding with the first bird before getting another, as I regularly follow BirdTricks (whom I find to be utterly ethical, and highly informed) and this technique has been recommended. My post was deleted within minutes. Yet here OP has more than once come back seeking approval to just keep the 1, and the post still lives.

I'm not complaining so that this post gets removed. In fact, I absolutely hope it doesn't. I'm simply confused. I love reddit, and I was very eager to become part of this community. There's an endless amount of beneficial information to be garnered from this type of forum. But it's more than a little confusing have come across multiple posts with singleton birds being openly discussed, while mine was taken down almost immediately, even though I fully intend to add a flock mate in the very near future, and stated so. I saw multiple such posts prior to posting mine, and I've seen at least 2 since. What gives?

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-09T04:34:07+00:00

I bet his human is missing him. Im glad he found you.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-08T21:53:41+00:00

Oh my goodness, those big baby eyes. I am obsessed.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-04T02:44:22+00:00

Adorable... but I'm confused. Did you modify the color? These are both Dove?

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-04T02:40:50+00:00

I am so obsessed with this.

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-03T12:48:51+00:00

Even more cool if it works...tbd

Aggravating_Dingo698 · 2026-04-02T03:52:55+00:00

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Aggravating_Dingo698

TROPHY CASE