Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Shade is officially a girl!

Last week I brought Shade to the vet to have her beak checked out. Nothing major, just a minor irregularity and it turns out that, once again, I was more cautious than necessary as it really wasn't an issue.

Anyways, while I was there I asked that the vet if it would be possible to get Shade DNA sexed. A quick visit to the back (they normally take blood in the back for some reason) and it was done. All that was left was to wait.

I was told it would take 2-3 days. Well, since I went last Wednesday, I was growing a bit impatient and finally caved and called today. They couldn't help me, the vet who had seen her (not my usual vet but also a very nice lady) wasn't in and would be tomorrow and I would possibly know more then. When I finally accepted this, the clinic called back and it turns out the receptionist had wind of the result.

My little Shade is indeed a girl. I always had a strong feeling she was, it's nice to get a confirmation.

So I definitively have one girl (Shade) and one boy (Joey; Red-bellieds are sexually dimorphic and males have the bright orange belly whereas females have a nice green/orange wash colour). I might get the other three tested, although I'm rather reticent to do Piper as I'm afraid that she is indeed a male..and don't want to change my habit of calling her "her".

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