What type of sample is used to determine the sex of a bird?
DNA sexing can be performed with blood, feather or an eggshell sample. However collecting blood from your bird can sometimes be difficult and inconvenient. To collect blood from your bird you have to cut one of its nails and cause it to bleed. This can be very unsafe if not done correctly causing pain, stress, a chance of infection and excessive bleeding. Sometimes the bird will refuse to put his leg on the perch or will avoid being handled. Collecting a feather sample is a lot easier and causes little to no stress to the bird. Its fast and the bird will not feel any discomfort after the exam. Also with feather collection there is little or no chance of infection. Both blood and feather samples contain the birds DNA and provide the same amount of accuracy. This is why we only do feather samples.
