how can i find out the age of my male sennie

[alishalee]

Hi,
I am new to this forum, however i got my little digit 3 years ago. i was told he was 3 a the time however he is not banded. he was neglectled and is missing a toe when i got him. since then he has come a long way and talks like CRAZY and does a variety of tricks. he is SO SUPER friendly to EVERYONE HE meets!!! however, i do not know his age and am worried that i could have possibly been lied to. Also, his nails are painfully sharp and my father in law used to file them but digit is EXTREMELY scared and stubborn and HATES getting his nails done. i live in sarnia ontario canada and there are no places around here i can take him. vets in town don't even really look at birds!

[Michael]

Basically what you already know is the best age info you can get.

[alishalee]

ok!! well thank you!!

[Wolf]

There is no way that I am aware of to tell their age except for a short time prior to puberty and even that is not 100%.

[Pajarita]

Birds don't age like mammals, not visually anyway. The only two things that can give us a pointer are their legs and feet which get scalier as they get older and their eyes which are the tiniest bit more sunken when they are old than when they are young but that only happens when they are really old and, besides, I don't think it happens to every single one because 've had a Nanday that died when she was, at least, 28 and she looked exactly the same as a young bird.

[alishalee]

his feet are extremely scaley, and hes gotten white feathers around his beak recently and i just don't think is as young as i was told he was

[alishalee]

and his feet are black not pink

[Wolf]

Try posting a picture of your bird, you may have to reduce the size of the picture first. I have a female Senegal and her feet are not pink either.

[Pajarita]

Not all senegals have pink feet, some have gray ones (my hen has pink but my male has gray) so that doesn't mean anything. Birds do NOT get white feathers when they age so, again, that does not mean anything although it's not normal (are you sure the feathers are not down?). As to scaly legs and feet, it could very well be from years of a bad diet (high in protein and low in moisture -what does his beak look like?). Posting a couple of pictures of him would help...

[alishalee]

I tried to post pics but pics are too big how do i make them smaller