Males, Females, etc.

User Question
Hi. I want to thank you for making a beautiful site about keets. It has answered almost every question I have had. Well except for this one. I recently bought 2 keets. I told they guy one male, one female, for obvious reasons. Well ok, later down the road a year or two, don't worry. I like to study about things before I do it. Heck, I even read about parakeets 2 weeks before I made my decision(they are a lot better than zebra finches) Anyway, Long question short- I told the local pet dude that I wanted a male and female. I get one "female" that looks almost exactly like you bird Pinto, just with lighter blue. but, the one thing I noticed, is that the keet has black horizontal stripes(dark ones at that) streaking across beginning at the cere all the way to the back of my bird.(haven't thought of names yet). The cere of the "female" is beige. No hint of blue yet. The Male that I have is light blue,(I figured less colors=female, like with a duck, for camouflage or whatnot)but his cere is a nice darker blue with the horzontal lines starting above his eyes. I'm pretty confident that the "male" is a dude, but my question is about the female. From what I described, is she more likely to be a "he" because it is so young? The other question I had, is wether there is a noticeable age barrier between the two birds, enough to prevent breeding?

oh, more information on the birds:

they were bought on the same day, same store, apparently came from the same delivery truck.

my "younger female" is the same size, if not bigger than my "male"

And one final question. I work night shift(I get home at 130am, and wake up at 930am) I like to do things before I go to bed, would it be inappropriate to interact with the birds when I get home? or should I let them sleep as I would like to be doing right now?

Lisa's Answer
Keets get sexually mature at 6 months so really age difference isn't a big deal to them. But definitely take them both to a vet and make sure you get the books, nutrients and equipment necessary before you get into breeding. It's a 24 hour a day job, to be there watching over the mom and chicks.

Definitely do not wake the birds up at 1:30am, that is the middle of the night for them! Keets have a very strong sleep-wake cycle tied into daylight. It is how they managed to stay alive during the centuries of life in the wild. They will be awake at 9:30am when you wake up, and will love to spend time with you then!

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