I have two budgies, Peter and Sky

Peter is a male budgie with blue over his beak, but Sky is a pale shade over the beak which I understand makes Sky a female, but occasionally tinges of pale blue appear. Sky is a clearwing budgie, but is Sky female or male?

The Budgie / Budgerigar / Parakeet

Feeding: Vegetarian. Make sure your budgie has clean food and water throughout the day. Change water twice daily, morning and evening. Budgies can be offered a variety of foods. Special care must be taken to ensure that your budgies get a well balanced diet, as nutritional deficiencies are a common cause of illness and death. Although seeds are a budgie's basic diet, if fed only on seeds, they will develop an iodine deficiency, making them susceptible to goitre (swelling of the thyroid gland).

What can I feed my Budgie?

Budgie mix (shown on right) can be purchased at the pet shop and is a staple diet containing a mixture of millet, oat groat and canary seeds. The diet should also include a daily offering of fruits and vegetables. Who likes to eat the same thing all the time anyway? Don't be surprise if your budgie doesn't eat the fruits or vegetables at first. It make take months, but keep trying. Thoroughly clean any fruits and vegetables you feed to your bird. You can offer your budgies apples, grapes, guava, mango, orange, pomegranate, watermelon, blanched or grated carrots and green leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach. However, do not feed them cabbage, as cabbage will make your budgie sick. Some other foods to avoid are chocolate, avocado, beans, croton, eggplant, raw peanuts, apple seeds, raw potatoes and asparagus. It's important for budgies to have calcium in their diet. Budgie owners provide their bird with calcium by placing a piece of cuttlebone (the bone of the cuttlefish) in their cages.