DNA Testing is the 100% reliable way to determine the sex of your bird. There are several reasons to have your bird DNA sexed...Health Reasons, primarily. Its often helpful to your vet in an emergency to know whether your bird is Male or Female, and its just general good bird parenting. So, my completely non-professional opinion is that everyone should have their bird DNA sexed...whether they're just a pet or a breeder or whatever. Some people say otherwise, but hey...its just an opinion. If you decide against DNA sexing you'll find out someday...if you bird ever decides to lay an egg...then you know its female :) But, if your bird gets eggbound the first time it tries to lay and egg and you come home to find it laying near death on the bottom of its cage wouldn't it be terribly helpful to know its female? Could save its life someday...think about it.
There are several different ways DNA sexing is performed. Your vet can draw blood directly from the bird, can go INSIDE your bird and have a look around (yikes!), you can clip their toe nail too short (make it bleed) and take a few drops of blood from that, or you can use a blood feather. Personally, I like the blood feather option. Why? Because many birds get VERY stressed when handled by a stranger, particularly one holding a large needle pointed at their tiny little vein. I get traumatized by having blood drawn, so I'm not going to subject Alex to the same torture (I'm scared of needles). The whole go inside the bird thing is a little personal for my tastes...if you were a bird, what would YOU think? Not to mention the fact that method is not 100% reliable. Only DNA sexing (or your bird laying an egg) is 100% reliable. Clipping a bird's toe nail too short isn't my cup of tea, for several reasons. One, that's gonna be sore for a while. Yow. Not to mention the fact that they often don't want to STOP bleeding. Birds bleed to death fairly easily, so anything that causes bleeding makes me nervous. When you pull a blood feather the bleeding stops almost immediately. No stiptic powder and no sore toe afterwards. Next time you clip your bird's nails, they often remember their last painful experience...causing you problems every time you try to clip nails after that. I prefer the option to pull a blood feather and either give that to the vet, or send it in to a private company who can preform the test, usually for a nominal fee of $15-20. Not half bad really. The blood feather option might be a little daunting for some people...my advice to those of you cringing at the thought of pulling a blood feather from your bird is to take the bird to the vet and let them preform the whole thing. As for the rest of you, the procedure is simple. When your bird gets a blood feather, PULL it. I know, it sounds terrible, but it only hurts for a second and then its over...minimal bleeding, minimal stress for the bird, etc. The company you decide to go with will provide you with instructions to properly remove a blood feather without injuring your bird. Sure there is a slight risk of damaging the feather folicle...but in my opinion the risks there are much less than the risks involved with the other options, and this risk is very small if you follow the instructions very closely. Then you just mail the feather into the company, and they mail you the results. Simple and Easy. There'll be a few links below that will tell you more about all of these options, how they are preformed, etc. If you have any questions, as usual, you can always e-mail me and I'll yak at ya about it for days :) jasper_03_26@yahoo.com
Links to Help You With DNA Sexing
AMR Laboratories. This is a small company located in Plymouth Meeting, PA.
Avian Biotech International. This company, located in Tallahassee, FL., is part of Angen, Inc. It probably offers the most complete DNA services for birds In addition to gender determination, this company offers testing for several avian diseases, DNA fingerprinting, and DNA banking. It has a branch in the United Kingdom to serve European customers.
California Avian Laboratory. This laboratory offers DNA sexing in addition to many other clinical test for avian patients.
DNA Solutions. Offers feather DNA sexing. Has offices in several countries. Among the lowest cost of the companies offering avian DNA sexing.
Genekam Biotechnology AG. This is a German company that offers DNA sexing from both feathers and blood.
Genetic Science Services. This Australian company offers DNA sexing of parrots as well as genetic DNA testing of mammals and people. GSS has requested I include the following statements: "Now Your Birds Can Join The DNA Revolution." Safe, Reliable and Accurate DNA Sexing. Real scientists who are real animal lovers.
HealthGene Corporation. This is a Canadian company that offers DNA sexing and fingerprinting as well as DNA based diagnostics for avian pathogens.
Medical Diagnotic Services, Ltd. This company offers both bird sexing and virus detection services.
Unigen. This is a Brazilian company that offers DNA sexing as well as some pathogen diagnostics.
Vita-Tech Laboratories. This company has offices in both the United States and Canada. Offers DNA sexing and diagnostics testing for avian pathogens.
Zoogen Services. This is the first company to offer DNA sexing for birds. This company may also be reached by phone at 1-800-995-2473 or FAX at 1-530-750-5758.
~Many thanks to the site where I found this awesome list, and to its owner for permission to use it~
The Caique Site
