Hello, and a few questions regarding my baby parakeet.

[Lunera]

Hello there guys

My name is Agnes - nice to meet you all! I'm from Ireland and I now have two birds - one canary and one red rump parakeet.

I am new to the forum and also a fresh owner of a baby red rumped parakeet. I got it just today. It is approximately 8 weeks old. It is a hand-reared parakeet. I've been told in the store that they are 99% sure that it is a male, however by the looks of it - seems like it is a female! As far as I'm concerned, male red rumps are way more colorful than this one. She/he is all green with yellow / grey spots. Also, the guy from the store 'checked' the sex of it by looking beneath his tail, however I don't think that this is the way to check whether it's a male or a female (I think they lied to me just to sell me the parrot, but maybe the feathers will change as he/she ages?). He was very rough with the bird, one time it got away and he caught it in a very 'dramatic' manner. (which is also one of the reasons why I took it in, so the poor bird doesn't get treated badly). I am now afraid that this lovely parakeet is traumatized. Is there a chance that if I'm following the right steps in order to make her trust me, that she is going to create a friendly relationship with me? I'm talking to her and I keep her cage close to me.

Also, she is sitting at the bottom of the cage most of the time. Would you say that's normal for a bird's first day at new place? Her feathers on the sides of her wings are sticking out a little bit - like on a 45 degrees angle, or a little less. Her feathers on her belly are dirty - I assume it's because she was sitting in a box in that store for maybe a day (I got her just as she arrived to the store) and she got dirty inside there. I thought it was a really cruel way of keeping these birds. I hope she will recover from the trauma and will be able to trust me and live a happy life here.

Regards,
Agnes.

[Pajarita]

It's a very young baby and scared, that's why he is staying at the bottom of the cage. It's also possible that he wasn't allowed to learn how to fly and cannot flap his way up to the perches so, please, put a little ladder for him and cover the back half of the cage with a towel so he doesn't feel so vulnerable. Also, you need to offer two different types of soft food because, even when they can be weaned at 8 weeks of age, they are still very young and need the soft food for a little while longer (you can use cooked brown rice, oatmeal -no milk, just water, polenta, soft bread, cooked cous-cous, stuff like that).

As to whether it's a male or a female, yes, you are 100% correct, there is no way to tell by looking under the tail so the employee that did this knew nothing about birds but it might very well be a male because the juvenile plumage is much duller than the adult one but males are an almost emerald green while females are a drab olive plus the males have the red rump and a bit of a blue suffusion on the wings and back (suffusion is when you see a bit of a different color evenly mixed with the base one but not so that it makes another color -like green and blue would make teal- it's more like almost like a shine to it, not a real mix).

What kind of canary do you have? I have red-factors and Spanish Timbrados.

[Lunera]

Thanks very much for your reply. I have some egg food here for him, and actually I have noticed a little bit of blue coming through at its wings, so after all it could be a male.

I am not sure what species is my canary, I think its kind of a mix, it's white with some black and yellow feathers coming through - I attached some pictures

[Pajarita]

LOL - No, the colors don't help to determine which canary breed (unless he has red in him and a normal body shape, in which case, he would be a RedFactor) he is but, if he had been of any particular breed, you would have been told when you bought him and, most likely, he would have a leg band with the corresponding breed association's initials.