How to Tell the Age of a Parakeet/Budgie? (Parakeet or Budgie Age)

Last Updated on March 22, 2023 by Lily Aldrin

To tell the age of a Parakeet or Budgie is an easy task. You can tell either the Parakeet is a baby or an adult just by several signs like checking their feathers whether they are stripped or clear. The other way to find out the age of Parakeet or Budgie is by looking at their beak and eyes by checking that you can find out either it’s a baby or mature.

The other way that involves checking the age of Parakeet or Budgie is you can check their leg bands and contact the pet store, or you can call their previous owner.

By using these three methods, you can check the age of the Parakeet. Let’s go through the detailed process by which you can check the age of a Parakeet.

how to tell the age of a parakeet or Budgie

Examining the Parakeet’s Cap Feathers to Find Their Age

Parakeets Age by Head Cap

For Parakeets Younger than 3 to 4 Months:

For checking the age of young parakeets, you should always look for the strips on the cap of their heads, which end on the base of their upper beak.

strips on the cap of their heads

If you find these symptoms in your Parakeet, then your parakeet age is less than three months.

For Parakeets Older than 3 to 4 Months:

When your Parakeet is older than four months it will start losing the strips on its head, but not Parakeet loses the strips; the strips are also replaced by the yellow or black colored feathers.

strips on the cap of their heads adult

So when you see that the Parakeet has lost its stripes and yellow or black colored feathers (according to the breed of Parakeet), then your Parakeet’s age is above four months.

Here you have to note that if your Parakeet is of rare quality, then don’t rely on the cape feathers, but you can find the age with the other methods in the list.

Looking at Parakeets Eyes and Beak to Determine their Age

For Parakeets that are below 12 weeks of age:

For the parakeets that are below 12 weeks of age, you will notice that they have excess pigments on their beak. The pigments will get even darker when the parakeet ages with time.

Parakeet Pigmented Beak

When the parakeets reach a specific age, these pigments will be absorbed. This then results in normal or pink, brown, or violet beak.

You can also check the age by the eyes of the parakeets. To check the age, you have to notice the iris. This is a ring of color surrounding the black pupil of the bird’s eye. If they don’t find the iris ring or the eyes are completely black, then the Parakeet is below five months.

For Parakeet Older than Five Months:

If you find the dark gray iris, which is the surrounding of the Parakeet’s eye. With Parakeet’s age, this iris develops accordingly.

There you will know that your Parakeet is not below 12 weeks because a baby parakeet does not develop iris. But the Parakeet’s age more than five months have dark gray iris in the eye.

If you find out that your Parakeet has a dark gray iris in the eye, then your Parakeet is between the age of five and eight months.

For better results, check the eye of the Parakeet in the natural sunlight. This way, you will get the view to check the iris in the eye of the Parakeet.

For Parakeet Age More than Eight Months:

You can also check the age of the Parakeet, whose age is more than eight months by the iris. If your Parakeet’s age is more than eight months, it develops the light gray or brown iris.

This is because as Parakeet’s aged, the iris lightened. The Parakeet developed the light iris as it aged. And if your Parakeet has a light gray or brown iris, then the Parakeet is more than ten months.

Parakeets Iris for Determining Age

Using Parakeets ID band or Breeding History to Determine its Age

You can use this method to find the age of the Parakeet; this method involves finding the numbers on the band which is attached to the leg of the Parakeet and call the number to find out the pet shop or its previous owner.

Parakeets ID Band

On the band, you can also find the age and origin of the Parakeet. But there is a drawback in this method that if the band on your Parakeet is blank then you can find the age of the Parakeet in this manner.

You can examine the numbers as:

  •   The set of letters that are written first on the band are the identification of the company that issues the band.
  •   The next set of numbers that are written on the band identifies the breeder.
  •   These are the most important set of numbers as they define the age of the Parakeet.
  •   The last set of numbers identifies the pedigree number of the bird.

Check the age by the color of the identification band:

You can also find the age of the Parakeet by the color of the band. If the band of the Parakeet is issued by the budgie bands, then your work is easy because they issue the bands with the color that determines the age of the Parakeet.

You can visit the American budgerigar society website and check the age by matching the color of your Parakeet’s band.

You can also check the age of the Parakeet by simply calling the previous owner of the Parakeet. This is the simplest method in the list, but if you don’t know about the previous owner or you don’t have the contact number of the previous owner, then you can check the age by other methods.

But there are also some drawbacks of this method as sometimes the previous owner provides the wrong information about the age of the Parakeet because they want to sell it to you. So this can be a major problem as you won’t get the right age of the Parakeet from its previous owner.

Conclusion

Here we have talked about how to find the actual age of the Parakeet or Budgie. We have also shown some exciting ways through which you can find the actual age of the Parakeet or Budgie.

About Lily Aldrin

I am Lily Aldrin. I attended Cornell University, where I obtained my degree to become an Ornithologist so I could pursue my love of these magnificent creatures in and out of their natural habitats.

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