our she may be a he

[ellieelectrons]

I took Janey & Charlie to the vet today for their yearly checkup. Our old avian vet has moved away so we went to a new one... Any way, he is thinking that our beautiful blue girl Janey may be a boy! Yikes! He wasn't sure... she has a grey ring at the front of her face... he said we will know for sure within a couple of months. Janey is 2 years and 4 months old.

Although she was DNA sexed female, I always knew it was a possibility that it was wrong... but I had thought that she was showing behavioural signs of being female... and I thought that she probably would have her black ring by the time she turned two if she were a boy.

... so I really wasn't prepared for this news... It really shocked me... don't think I took in what he said for the next 5 mins!

... so now we play the waiting game.... and if she does turn out to be a he we have some decisions to make: do we change her name? She can already say her name... in fact, she thinks it's our name... whenever she wants us she calls out "Janey, Janey" (very cute).... probably cos that's how we call her. Both her and our lutino can say it.

.... and do I keep saying "good girl" when she does something right? It's all very confusing!

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Ellie.

[SCB -SA]

Yes, my coco is meant to be a girl, but it behaves like a boy, it dances like a boy had a faint grey ring when we got it, it calls us and says daddys boytjie and all sorts... i am still not quite sure what it is, it regurgites for both my other birds, one being male and one being a female... so i am confused!!

[Melika]

You won't know for sure, of course for a while. But Hane's sisters from a later clutch all have rather prominent light gray rings. Not that it helps, but you might still have a girl.

Maybe "Jamie" will sound close enough?

[Lilly]

My Mum has a 16 year old cockatiel which she though was a girl. Totes (it's name) says 'good girl' 'pretty girl' 'you are such a pretty pretty girl' ....to find it's a boy... the bird doesn't know any different and it became a bit of a laugh seeing as the cockatiel says all this in a cockney type accent.

[kyria]

Females do have faint grey rings, so you shouldn't worry too much yet. I have a male cockatiel I rescued from a friend along with a female, my friend pointed to one and said thats charlie and the female there is priscilla. I had to break the news to her that priscilla is actually a boy and charlie is the girl .. lmao .. but priscilla still keeps his name to this day and has fathered two clutches of babies with our other tiel keily