Budgie cere changed color—Normal or needs vet?

[Zygodactylous]

Hi everyone,

I adopted this little friend, Banana, one year ago from a local rescue. I was told they were male but now I am not sure. I don’t know their age. The entire time I’ve had them, they have had a pale bluish cere. Today I noticed it is a solid reddish brown. Is this a normal thing for Lutino budgies, or should I make a vet appointment tomorrow? I know cere color change can be a sign of hormonal changes, health problems, and potentially gonadal cancers, but also color genetics affect cere color and it’s possible Banana was a baby when I adopted them.

I’ve attached a picture from April of this year, showing the bluish cere, and one from today, showing the reddish cere.

 

[AussieBird]

As far as I can tell Banana is a girl
Are her eyes red?

 

[GreenThing]

Agreed, sounds like a girl to me! I literally just brought a little girl home today, and the rescuer had made the same mistake (a lot of people, even otherwise knowledgeable parrot people, think "girl = brown, boy = blue", when pied boys can stay pink their whole lives and girls are very often pale blue before they turn brown). Mine has a pale blue but definitely white-blue cere, and the presence of milky white around the nares always = girl!

 

[Zygodactylous]

Thank you both! I’m glad to hear it’s probably just normal maturation related color change and not something more dire. She’s never been much of a singer and that makes more sense now!

As far as I can tell Banana is a girl
Are her eyes red?

They seem dark to me, with a pale edge. Not sure if it’s iris or sclera—it doesn’t respond to light. She’s very flighty though and hard to take pictures of.