Is my ringneck a girl or boy and how to tell its age?

[EmilyVictoria]

My husband found a lost ringneck and the owner has not been found so we will be keeping the bird and have named it Indie. We are unsure if the bird is male or female or how old the bird may be? The bird is well tamed and very friendly and can play and say "peek-a-boo", "step up", "gimme kiss" and "good boy". I am guessing it may be a boy if the past owner taught it to say "good boy" but I wanted some opinions of fellow parrot owners.

Also we have another ringneck named Bluey who is a more vibrant violet/blue colour who is just starting to develop a slight black ring so we are assuming it may be a boy i think she is about 18 months now? and the ringneck we saved is around the same size of Bluey however it's body is a bit more stocky, it has no ring, its feet are thicker and slightly darker in colour and its beak looks thicker and sort of wider as well. Also I did have a ringneck in the past with these same traits which was a young male.

Also Bluey has a higher-pitched voice whereas the bird we saved has more of a calm voice which is more pleasant to listen to.

I'm aware that to find out the sex you need to DNA for accuracy but I don't want to put this bird through anymore trauma and lose our trust. I have attached an image of Indie the bird we saved and i have also attached an image of Bluey as i want some opinions on whether bluey may be a boy or girl as well . The image of Bluey is the bird sitting on the white perch and the other images are of Indie. Also i have attached a photo of them together so you can see the sizes of them together. Let me know what you guys think and if you can tell maybe how old Indie could be? Thanks!

[Pajarita]

Hi, Emily, Indie and Bluey, welcome to the forum. No, there is no need to DNA a ringneck, they are sexually dimorphic once they reach sexual maturity so unless you need to get a sample for blood work, why stress out the bird and pay for something that you don't need to? I am afraid it's impossible to tell Indie's gender because without knowing how old the bird is, it's nothing but a guess. You will have people telling you they KNOW because of the way the bird perches (females low to the perch, males more erect), the vocalizations, etc but, again, it's nothing but a guess unless you know the age and background of the bird. Indie's plumage is uneven which is usually a sign of young age BUT psittaculas are very reactive to a bad diet (too much protein and fat) and the first sign is always a bad plumage (as well as what people call a 'mojo' molt) so it is entirely possible that it was fed the wrong diet. The wrong diet for psittaculas is, unfortunately for the birds, VERY common because people think that any parrot diet is good for them not realizing that there are all kinds of parrots with all kinds of diets and any manufacturer that labels a bag of food as 'parrot food' is scamming you (the pet industry is completely unregulated so they can call a product or claim whatever they want on the label and not be legally liable for it). If you free-feed protein food (seeds, nuts, pellets, nutriberries, avicakes, etc) to a psittacula, eventually (and, with them, it takes two to three years only), it will show on the plumage (and destroy their livers and kidneys in the process). Then you have size with Indie being larger than Bluey BUT parrots, same as people, do come in different sizes even within the same species with birds bred from half-depleted or badly fed parents always being smaller than birds bred from healthy, strong, well-fed parents - so we can't really use that, either. We also cannot use the color of the feet or the size because, again, like people, these are individual characteristics. The one thing that makes a difference is speech - not the actual voice which would resemble the voice the parrot heard while learning the words (although all the IRNs I've heard sound -adorably!- like sweet little girls ) but the actual fact that the bird does speak and how many words it says. Very young parrots usually don't say many words if any at all. They normally start learning when they are juveniles so in order for a parrot to say several different words, time has to pass. BUT, again, although all parrots are smart, there are some that are just plain genius and some that are more like Forest Gump

Personally, I would wait a year or so and see if Indie gets a ring but, if you take bets, I will put my money on it being an adult girl that was not fed right.