Oliver & Ruby?!

[Olive&Rudy]

I am really confused about the sex of my birds (and wish id picked unisex names!) To start with when i saw them at the breeders he pointed them out and said thats the boy and thats the girl and i said oh the girls got a brighter face so at least i'll be able to tell them apart! Then when i went back to collect them i asked him if the girl still had a brighter face so i'd know them and he said yes, ul know them because the boy wolf whistles! However, when i got home, it was the one with the brighter face (that i thought was female) that wolf whistled so i had my boy and girl and named them accordingly (Olive and Rudy), thinking the breeder must have just got confused. A while back i caught Rudy trying to mount Olive so i thought good at least i know they are def the sexes i think! But this morning, Rudy was stripping a dowel and tucking the bits into 'his' feathers! Not all of them went in but he did get some to stay (although not for long) and i remembered that he had been taking bits of some willow sticks a couple of weeks ago while out of the cage, and carried them around in his beak. This morning while he was doing this Olive was screaching at him and then kept going behind him and they both looked like they were ready for a mounting :( so now i am so confused as to which is the boy and girl!! I also read on a diff post about the shape of their eyes, and looking at them, Rudy does have more almond eyes and generally looks 'chubbier/puffier' and Olive is sleeker looking and has rounder eyes. So have i got them the wrong way round?! :confused:
I'd love to hear ur more experienced opinions on what sex they are! I know it doesnt really matter if Olive is a boy and Rudy is a girl but its still frustrating!! I don't want to change their names, they know them and they suit them but....

[thebubbleking]

i have several male lovebirds who tuck paper and and twigs, just means they are good hen helpers :) the only true way to tell sex is dna or an egg period.

[Enko_chan]

Both of my male lovebirds tuck... only one humps, and both mount each other (they switch who goes on top when they mate), they go through "nesty" periods like they are male and female so convincingly that we really thought they were male and female for a long time, even Linda thought Frey was a hen.

Its really tough to tell lovie genders by behavior alone! :lol

[Olive&Rudy]

Haha glad its not just me then! Now when i talk to them tho and use their names im thinking r u a boy, r u a girl?! Haha wish it was more simple! Actually considered letting them breed but i presume they r brother and sister (if indeed they're one of each!!) so prob not a good idea. Suppose just have to keep observing them and look for more clues :)

[Enko_chan]

Frey and Odie are brother and sister, too, one generation back which made me sad* when I thought they were male x female, because they would have been genetically set up to produce lovely offspring... not that we had them specifically to breed, but I had no problem with keeping the offspring from a small clutch of small birds produced in my own aviary. In the end, I got so tired of not knowing what to call Frey(ja) that we DNA tested. The first test came back inconclusive! :rotfl Frey is a boy. To add to gender issues, though, Chris still refuses to call Frey "he". :whistle:

* I knew Frey and Odie were brother and sister when I got them, and they were always intended to be only companions but I always think in terms of potential genetic combinations once I know about them.