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Step 1
Use a surgical procedure called "surgical sexing." Your parrot actually goes under anesthesia for this procedure, which can be costly depending on the plan you have with your vet. An incision is made in the stomach or abdomen of the parrot, and a small instrument called a laproscope (used in human genital surgeries) is inserted to allow your veterinarian to visually identify the sex of the bird.
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Step 2
Have your vet take a drop of blood from the bird (usually from the feet) and send it to a lab for DNA analysis. This less-intrusive option tends to be the preferred method for most parrot owners.
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Step 3
Purchase a parrot from a pet store where the gender is marked. Often, breeders have the blood analysis done while the parrots are young so they can be marked or identified at pet stores. That way, you don't have to go through the methods above.
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Step 4
Know that some parrots do have ways to tell the gender, but not many. Eclectus parrots have different colored feathers when they are just a few weeks old that mark them as males or females. You can tell the gender of cockatoos by their eye color, usually after they are a year old.
