Hello all. Well my dear hubby has done it again and brought home another "lost soul". This poor little guy was stuck in a truck on my husband dealership lot, easily caught, hungry and after 3 weeks, chirps, squawks(LOUDLY!!!!) and appears generally content but won't let my hand near him but will allow me to mess within his cage....
This makes: 3 dogs, 2 cats and now a gorgeous sweet but very shy and obviously not tame keet! His name shall be Goober....(Don't ask, my 18 and 15 yo daughters named her/him?)
Okay so a few questions for you wonderful keet and animal fans out there. Can anyone guess how old he/she is? Sex?
I am thinking male and around 6 mos from what I have found online but this is my first bird/budgie and boy am I excited to have him! [img]http://[IMG]http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll165/susannap2/th_Goober1.jpg[/img][/img]

Well, you can tell the age by the bars on thier head and their eyes. Below is the link to that info. As far as the sex...I can't really see the keet's cere(where the nostrils are located above the beak) If it is white, tan/brown, or brown and crusty, it is a female, but if it is purple/violet or blue, it is a boy. I like the name by the way..my nephew made me name my newest boy Hobo Bob..he was trying to get me to name every new animal I got that name, so I finally gave in with this keet.
http://www.budgieplace.com/age.html
This is the link to Lisa Sheas homepage which has a TON f answers about keets http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/articles/bird_faq.html

Well, by taking a look at him/her it was a hard choice to make.

Number 1 : There are barrings on top of the head. If they go all the way down to the nose/cere she/he is a baby still.
Number 2 : Their nose/cere which is located above the mouth can be either pink or blue. Blue means that the keet is a male and if it is pink she is a female.

It looks too hard to tell right now since of a smaller picture and since you just brought him/her home.
It may be too early to tell. Keep us updated with pictures.

Sorry for the small pic, ooops! Gosh, I stop using photobucket for a few months and now I can't remember ANYTHING! I will post another pic (hopefully larger)
Thanks for the input so far. Goob's cere has what look like little blueberry spots on both sides but it's still so pale... hmmm
And here is another pic showing his profile, he has a "no bars" spot further back but still has bars running across the top of his head? So confuuuusing....

welcome to the forum and congrats on your new little rescue. he/she is gorgeous.

i agree with you about 6 months plus. the bars on his head may STAY the way they are now. it is the bars that would have been down the FRONT of the head that would determine a younger age along with the eyes.
can you see the lighter color around the outer edge of his eye balls? that will also help determine age, as stated above.
is there a tag on the leg? that will tell a YEAR on it so you could even go from there for age.

i had the same problem you are having when i found Sky. she was older and i figured her to be around 9 months when i found her. it is hard to tell the sex and age in quite a few keets, unless taken to an Avian Vet for confirmation.

just so you know, i have 2 FEMALES. that is determined by there ceres being WHITE around the nose holes and pale blue on the rest of the cere.

good luck figuring out your new bundle.

take care

hi and welcome! i am new here too have two babies, and we can all learn together eh?
that is so awesome you saved this poor girl gosh oh gee!
anyhow good luck and take time, gonna take a bit for that bird to trust you for sure with all the stress it has endured.
provide some warmth with a heater maybe to help with the stress unless it is hot where ya live, i am in cold front territory so it is a must!
ok take care
and happy welcome to the flock

Ok, not that I don't want a girl here but a boy in the house would be nice.... ha! Here is the breakdown of our household....
Of course I'm mom, I have 2 teen girls, all 3 of our dogs(2 are rescues) are female, our 2 cats(one shelter cat and one rescue are females, AND NOW OUR LIL BUDGIE IS POSSIBLY FEMALE TOO???
I have to laugh and I sure do wish all of you could see the look on my husbands face when I tell him Goob may be a she....
The last male animal was a guinea pig that sadly didn't seem to thrive amongst all of the estrogen. :0)

Either way, Goob is just precious and I will take him/her anyway! It wont be hard to call her she and one of the girls.
Do most vets have avian experience? I will check in with mine.
Another Question? How can I learn her "language" The cheeps, fweeps, clicks and yells? I tried finding some interpretations online, not much luck... Thank you all so very much!!!!!

What an interesting way to find a budgie! Welcome to the forums! Looks like a female to me, but I could be wrong.

Augh, another vote for the female....Thanks Kentucky, yep I am very very glad that my husband caught her. She was stuck in the area between the windshield and hood in one of the vents on a Tundra truck. Bit him once but as soon as Goob realized he wasn't going to hurt her all was well. Still won't let me touch though but will let me put my hand or fingers near her. I hope to win her trust and work with her daily... my newest obssession... We were out of state last week and my daughters said Goob never spoke or not much and boy the yelling began as soon as I walked in with suitcase in hand! I think that's a good bonding sign?

Welcome to the forum! I think she is a girl. Our Snowflake had a similar colored cere at around 8 months of age (the white around the nostrils and the rest of the cere pale blue). Now, two months later, her cere is brownish pink. Keep us updated as to how she is doing.