How to determine the age of a parrot?

One of the pressing questions for owners and future buyers of parrots is the age of the bird. Many do not even know how to correctly determine the age of parrots. It is believed that when buying a bird in a store, it is almost impossible to find out its age, because in appearance many individuals have practically no differences, especially budgies. Also, not all sellers say real age. In this article, we will find out some of the nuances that can be useful in determining the age of a parrot.

Many buyers of birdies do not ask at all why it is necessary to know the age of a parrot. This is due to the fact that birds that stay in the store for a long time are usually kept on poor feed without vitamins, coexist with other, possibly unhealthy birds, and the premises themselves are practically not ventilated. As a result, the birds get sick, sometimes hidden. And therefore, acquiring an "old" parrot, you can simply acquire an unhealthy bird, to which you can very quickly become attached, but it will die, or it will be bothered by very serious health problems.

In order not to miscalculate for sure with the age of the bird, consider how external traits it can be identified by being a layperson.

• Professional bird watchers recommend paying attention when choosing a parrot on its head. In budgies, contrasting "waves" should be clearly visible on it. In young females and males, these stripes are visible from the beak itself to the bright head. The only exceptions are albinos who do not have such stripes.

• And you should also very carefully consider the eyes of the bird you like. They should be bright black with an iris. Usually such eyes indicate that I will not be more than six months old.In some individuals, the eyes may become lighter by about 10 months. But the bright and wide rim around the pupil of the bird is one hundred percent certainty that in front of you is an individual, which is clearly more than 1 year old. Of course, there are exceptions associated with mutations, for example, red eyes in albinos. But such individuals are extremely rare.

• The age of the bird can also be determined by looking at the part of the head above the beak. Where the nostrils are. This place is called Vosovitsa. So, in young wavy parrots, it should have a pale pink hue, cream, and sometimes bluish. It becomes darker at the moment when puberty begins in parrots, usually for this, an average of six months must pass. It should also be taken into account that such changes in shade are mainly characteristic of females; in boys, the pink-blue tint of the wax remains for a longer period. This is due to the anatomical features.

• And also special attention should be paid to the specks on the throat of the bird.... The younger she is, the brighter and richer they are, and the older, the smoother and smoother their outline.
• Parrots, which are only a few months old, have rather dense scales on their legs. Therefore, they are also worth paying attention to. With age, these very scales become very noticeable and loose.
• And perhaps the very last criterion by which you can determine the age of a parrot can be attributed to its tail... The tails of young females and males are rather short. But it should also not be ruled out that the bird may be an adult, it could simply have lost long feathers from the tail for other reasons.

But it should also be noted that the lifespan of a domestic parrot is usually 10 years, in rare cases 15. If you compare the age of a parrot by human standards, you should know that a one and a half year old parrot corresponds to the age of a 10-year-old child. To transfer age, you can pay attention to special tables.

To determine the age of a cockatiel parrot, you should also pay attention to the legs, they should have pale pink scales on them.

And also usually young cockatiels of cockatiels move and jump quite awkwardly, which in many ways may indicate that they have not yet fully adapted. The plumage of young birds is bright, but not yet abundant. Babies have black feathers on their heads, which most often only lighten by 10 months. A completely gray color in this species of parrots appears only after the first molt, that is, after six months.

Birds acquire bright green plumage after about six months, before that they have a grayish-green uneven color.

Summing up, it should be said that you should not recognize the age of a bird by just one sign, for example, specks on the head or by the shade of wax. In order to guess the age as closely as possible, all of the above signs should be considered comprehensively. In addition, it should be understood that not everyone can find out the age of a parrot by external signs, and therefore birds should be purchased only in well-recommended places where potential customers are not deceived.

For information on how to determine the age of a budgerigar, see the next video.