upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Dear Colleagues
Please I’m totally confusing how to distinguish male and female (Love Bird) I went through may issues like the (Size – Shape of the tail – even pelvic bone ) but still I find it very hard to tell which is which.
I know the better way is the DNA Test, but unfortunately I don’t have this technology in my area so please guys any idea from your own experiences.

What country are you in? We can help find a testing place. Can your vet do it? I don't know of a reliable way to tell otherwise, but I don't have lovies.

Hi Christie
Well I’m in Africa – Sudan, it is so difficult to find out which is which in all Species but as you know some are well clear to find out. But for Love birds, Rosella, some parrot species.. it’s really hard, so most of the time we keep the offspring pets all together in one cage (Separate species ) and keep an eye on them then start to pick the pair when we sow them mating and behaving like male and female, so separate them and still monitoring until we get sure enough they are completely pair .

I'm not seeing any testing places right away, but I'll keep checking. Hopefully someone will come along that can help you more.

If you are dealing with eye-ring species rather than Peachfaced, eye shape has worked for me. Looking just at the eye, itself, males tend to have round eyes, while hens tend to have almond shaped ones. This won't work with Peachfaced, however. If you can send out your own samples, Avian Biotech (http://www.avianbiotech.com) will do DNA sexing internationally.

Thanks LindaL,
I will check this out, Actually am dealing with both Species; the eye ring one is looks quite different from the beach face even in the behaviors, am not sure about this but I noticed that the eye ring is not shredding stuff for his nest, but he put it in special way like he cover all the nest entrance and he makes small hall for himself to go though so he can hide himself completely with his partner (this when I provided him with Palm leaves) . But the peach face shred only a little in small circle where the female lay her eggs.

Regarding the DNA Testing abroad I’m not sure about the procedure but I will see how its work around here.

Let's start at square 1.
If you need to track your birds, they need to be banded.
If dna testing is not an option, then you need to colony breed the birds
and see how they pair up. When they start nesting, usually the hen will spend more time in the nest,
and the male will be on the nest box. Also, the hen will probably be the larger of the two.
If you need to select for color mutations and don't want to separate the pairs, then you
will need to work with their babies. For lovebirds, a couple generations might not be harmful,
if there is no other choice.

Thanks Alhee
This what I’m doing right away, monitoring the birds all together in one place then separate for color mutation, but for the hen size this is not working for me, cause I have two pairs which is the males is quite large than the hens, they were also fool me at the first time.