DNA Sexing

7414 Views 37 Replies 24 Participants Last post by LinnieLover, Oct 12, 2009

Nick

Discussion Starter · Sep 26, 2009

Do you have your birds DNA sexed in order to determine their gender, or do you just consider them whatever you "think" they are?
I don't DNA my birds, but I know most of their genders. Parrotlets are sexually dimorphic, so I know that Maya is a female and Oscar is a male. Lily has laid eggs, so she's definitely a female. The other two - Harpo and Linden - are unknown, but I consider them males.

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Jenny

· #2 · Sep 27, 2009

My female Linnie, Kaiko, was DNA'd from the breeder as was Mizu. Loki I assume is a male by his... gregariousness with toys

The parrotlets you can tell, the tiel... well... I assumed female but the vet told me it might be a male... I still say 'she'! :lol:

SpickyDavies

· #3 · Sep 28, 2009

i've sent off a few DNA packs but never went threw with it, i couldn't bring myself to plucking the feathers

kneel

· #4 · Sep 28, 2009

Both the quaker and the grey are dna'd females w/ paper.

twotweets

· #5 · Sep 29, 2009

I can tell my guys by their colors. When I was lucky enough to have a Molucan I had him sexed so I would have a idea how he would be when he matured. Other wise I go what what my guts says. To me it matters more what the bird is like than a boy or girl.

Nancy

· #6 · Oct 1, 2009

Jenny said:
My female Linnie, Kaiko, was DNA'd from the breeder as was Mizu. Loki I assume is a male by his... gregariousness with toys The parrotlets you can tell, the tiel... well... I assumed female but the vet told me it might be a male... I still say 'she'! :lol:

Jenny, I just thought I would mention that Loki could be a female. We had this discussion on another forum to which I belong and there were many owners of female birds that were "gregarious with toys". You just never know...:shrug:
My vet told me that when she was in vet school they had a budgie that all the students agreed was a male because of the color of the cere. When "he" started laying eggs they came to the conclusion that dna was really the most sure way to know. Although I have been reading that even that is not always 100% accurate.

Jenny

· #7 · Oct 1, 2009

yea, I know there is the possibility that Loki could be female :lol: Loki was quite amorous with his mate, Mizu, whom I lost recently and has the darker barring/headshape of a male, so the usual visuals mark him male. I would DNA him but... :shrug: I'm not overly bothered either way!

twink

· #8 · Oct 2, 2009

My conures are both DNA sexed males. My cockatiel was never sexed, but of course we know she's a girl from visual clues.

birdiebuddie

· #9 · Oct 5, 2009

i just guess, mojito is a girl according to talk budgies but i dont see either gender in his cere.

Corina

· #10 · Oct 5, 2009

Budgies are easy to sex so I don't think DNA sexing is necessary, I have 6 males and 4 females

Sensfan

· #11 · Oct 5, 2009

Millie is a DNA'd female and Niblet is a DNA'd male.It's nice to know especially when naming.

Marit

· #12 · Oct 6, 2009

Koda is DNA sexed, and appeared to be a girl

Schnapperxx

· #13 · Oct 6, 2009

I agree with Corina.
Why DNA sex when you can tell the gender easily.
Okay, not so easy for some mutations.

I guess sometimes you just have to wait till your parrot gets older,
usually then it is easier to tell it's gender.

Masae

· #14 · Oct 6, 2009

I actually want to get Mochi DNA sexed, but I'm not about to run into the vet office just for that.

For now, she's my little "She".

And for some reason I really think she's a she.

anneekins

· #15 · Oct 6, 2009

yeah, it's easy enough to tell with the budgies, but we thought for sure that lentil was a boy for about a year...then we had her DNA'd, and...SURPRISE! i am not a pro on tiels, but billie lays eggs so even *I* can tell. :lol:

afrsss

· #16 · Oct 6, 2009

I have had all my flock dna'd that could not be seen visually. Turbo is really Turbolina.....

Kate

· #17 · Oct 6, 2009

Unfortunately DNA sexing is not always accurate. The feathers or blood sample can be contaminated with another birds DNA and a false reading can be obtained. A friend purchased an IRN that had been DNA sexed as a female when immature. Funny enough when the bird matured it obtained a beautiful ring on his neck.

Another man I know who purchased a Male African Grey for his Pet Shop that had been DNA sexed and he ended up getting stuck with him as everyone wanted females that season. The bird started talking and he decided to keep it as a pet. He decided when one of our Avian Vets came around with the portable Sexing kit to have him Surgically Sexed and low and behold he had ovaries and not testes. All expensive birds that come into his shop now he has Surgically Sexed as he has also had pairs (male and female) sold to him who turn out the be the same sex. So he just routinely gets them all sexed and over a certain price they are also microchipped for security just to make sure they are the sex they are supposed to be.

I prefer to have my birds Surgically Sexed if I need to know what they are before they either colour up or mature or if they are monomorphic. Except for Conures especially Sun Conures. They don't tend to cope well with the anaesthetic. But I have never had a problem with Surgical Sexing and the birds are only out for a couple of minutes.

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EverLove

· #18 · Oct 6, 2009

How does DNA Sexing work, exactly? Since I have only had budgies, I haven't had to think about this.

Sensfan

· #19 · Oct 6, 2009

afrsss said:
I have had all my flock dna'd that could not be seen visually. Turbo is really Turbolina.....

That's cute Andrea. We often call Millie Milliken. It just suits her, she such a deva

Kate

· #20 · Oct 6, 2009

It can be done in 2 ways. Either by feather sample or blood sample. With the feather you need to pull 1 primary feather and 1 secondary feather. With blood your are supplied with a sterile needle and a special strip to put the blood on. You prick the foot with the needle and get the blood on the strip. Both of these ways the sample goes into a sterile tube and sealed. At the lab they then check the sample for an x chromosome or a y chromosome to determine the sex of the bird.

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