Poll results: how old are your budgies?

 

The results show that a lot of people own young budgies. In pet stores, the demand for "nest-leavers" is high. People can't resist the sweet babyface of a 5-month old budgie, and they often make the mistake of only buying one of them. Another fact is that budgies don't often get older than 10-15 years. You buy a budgerigar, knowing that you want to spend as much time with your bird as possible. This is all perfectly understandable; I also bought two budgies that were between 4 - 8 months old. I figure that this is as young as they're allowed to be sold in a pet store.
My point with this poll is that I want to encourage more people to choose for older budgies. Try for once to ignore what they say in all the budgie books: "pick a budgerigar that looks young, healthy, with shiny feathers" and so on. Rather think of this: pick the weakest or the oldest budgie you see. Turn things around for once and if your intentions are good, you will probably give that budgerigar the best life he could ever dream of. 
I'm actually planning to start doing this, as soon as my husband allows me to have another, bigger cage!

Image © Wikipedia

I also wanted to see if there are actually people who own any budgies that are older than 15 years - which is very old for a budgerigar! As I'd expected, there aren't many, but those 12 people who voted deserve a major thumbs-up! Keep up the good work! :)

How old is my budgie? (3)

Age test 3/3

If you buy your budgie, he may have an ID band around one of his legs. If you take a closer look, you can see numbers and letters. If there aren't any numbers or letters on it, then it's a family band or "split band" - a coloured band that is split on one side so it can be placed and removed on a bird at any moment in his life. Breeders use this to keep track of the family line of the budgie. But it won't tell you anything about the budgie's age.












Left leg: ID band. Right leg: family band. The ringing itself often happens before the budgie is 10 days old.

On the ID ring, you can read the following information in this order:

• The company who distributed the band
• The breeder's number and/or initials
• The year the budgie was hatched in (usually the two last digits of the year are displayed)
  
• Serial/pedigree number of the budgie (example: if it says "29", then this budgie is the 29th budgie hatched that year)

You can also check the ID band colour. Different colours represent different years, it's an easier but less reliable way to find out how old your budgie is. You can find a short list on the ID band colours here. For the new six-year cycle that started in 2009, go here.

In Belgium, the system is pretty much the same. There are the so-called "open rings" (family bands) to keep the different families apart. To get hold of the "closed rings" (ID bands), you have to be a member of a bird/budgerigar club. On these rings, you can find the following information:

• Serial/pedigree number, chosen by the breeder (max. 3 digits and 3 letters)
• The initials of the budgerigar/bird club the breeder belongs to
• A digit or number that says how many rings the breeder already owns (if it says "17", it is your 17th ring)
• The year that the budgie was hatched in

You can choose between a regular, silver or coloured ring.

Information and images (c) budgieplace.com; budgerigarsociety.com

How old is my budgie? (2)

The second age test involves the colour of your budgies' eyes.

The eyes of young budgies will mostly be black. As they get older, the iris gradually becomes light grey/brown and then eventually turns to very light grey/brown.













Left: Baby budgie's eyes will be black for most varieties. Age: 0-4 months old.
Right: A budgie with a dark grey iris. Age: around 4-6 months old













Left: A budgie with medium grey irises. Age: approximately 6-8 months.
Right: A budgie with very light-coloured irises. Age: 8 months and older.

Again, there are exceptions:

1. Lutino/Albino, Lacewing and Fallow: these red-eyed varieties always have a light-coloured (pink) iris.
2. Recessive Pied and Dark-Eyed Clear: these varieties always have dark eyes.

Images and information (c) budgieplace.com

How old is my budgie? (1)

There are at least three ways to approximate the age of your budgie.

Age test 1/3: check the budgie's cap feathers.

Young budgies have bars on their head running all the way down to the cere. When a budgie is about 4 months old, he will go through his first molt. The top feathers on the head will be replaced by feathers that are no longer striped. Therefore you can determine that a budgie with a striped cap is less than 3 to 4 months old, while a budgie with a clear white or yellow cap is older than 3 to 4 months.

Exception! Lutino or Albino budgies don't have the usual feather markings and therefore this age test cannot be applied to them. The same goes for Recessive Pied budgies.










Left: compare the older bird on the left and the younger one on the right
Right: this age test cannot be applied on a recessive pied budgie

Information and pictures (c) budgieplace.com