few questions on pearls

[twig braker]

so i was looking around on google for some other things to help me find out if my tiel is a boy or a girl and read somwhere that if you have a pearl lutino it can only be a girl, like its not possible for a boy to be a pearl lutino. is that true? seems weird that a mutation can only be a girl mutation?

also after reading that i went around trying to find out what exactly a pearl was and i couldnt really find any good descriptions so i was wondering if someone could clear that up for me and explain what a pearl is.
thank you

[atvchick95]

Pearl & Lutino are both sex linked gene's (meaning it's MOSTLY girls who you see as a pearl or a lutino or both) BUT if both the parents carry the gene (the mom would have to be a Lutino Pearl, the dad would be split to both lutino and pearl or split to one and visual the other or he could very well be both visually as well .) then Yes you can get males that are Lutino Pearl

Pearl is a "scalloping" effect on a bird

Looks like this

This is a Normal Pearl

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/RednecksDoItBest/My%20Birds/Cockatiel%20Pictures/Pearl2forsale.jpg

White face Pearl

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y29/RednecksDoItBest/My%20Birds/Cockatiel%20Pictures/WFPearlforsale10monthsold.jpg


when it comes to Lutino Pearls A lot of the time you can't really tell they're pearled (same with Lutino pied) because the Lutino doesn't get other colors but there are occasions where the pearling (or pied for lutino pieds) are a brighter yellow then the body color

then you could tell.

this is the best pic of a Lutino Pearl I could find (I don't own one so i had to go search for one)

http://www.cockatielsplusparrots.com/images/Lutino_Pearl-EBurgin.jpg

From this website

http://www.cockatielsplusparrots.com/mutations-genome.html

[Cheryl]

A lutino pearl can be either sex.. I don't know where you heard that. Maybe you got that if a male that has lutino and pearl genes mates with a non lutino/pearl female, only the females will be lutinos and pearls. Females cannot hide lutino and pearl genes. If they have the gene, they will show it.

This guide describes pearls nicely. It also includes pictures!
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=7227

[babybreau]

thanks for the link to the thread Cheryl - my baby is going to be a pearl and i'm looking for info as well!

[twig braker]

ok thank you for clearing that up i had an idea of what pearl was but wasnt totally sure. i think i have a lutino pearl, il try to get a pic up to see if you guys agree if it is. so it is most likely a girl if it is a lutino pearl then?

[Cheryl]

Do you know the mutations of the parents? Even just the mother would help sexing. :)

[huskymom]

what she said.... pics are always a treat and soooo helpful... as well as knowing a bit on the parents ;)

[twig braker]

no i dont not i didnt think it would be this much trouble to find out the sex, cause when i researched them beforehand i just looked up stuff about greys which are pretty easy to sex and cockatiels in general, and when i went to buy i saw this little guy and he seemed the healthiest and the funnest he was running all over the cage and climbing all over everything so i got him thinking it would be the same process to find the sex, but i was mistaken.

i just took some pictures now so hopefully they turn out ok and i will put them up soon

[twig braker]

eh the pics are not that great our camera is not that good, but there is a little more yellow than you can see on his wings, not a lot but there is more than you can see

[huskymom]

definately a lutino pearl... if her mom wasn´t exactly like her then you can be sure it´s a girl... mom HAD to be lutino pearl just like her for her to be a male (and dad could be either visual or carry the split for BOTH)...

if you don´t know the parents you can go from behaviour... beak banging, heart wings, whistling tunes not just chirps...

but if I had to guess I´d say a girl, as it would be more likey only dad carried the genes and passed them on, hence making her a girl... but if mom had also those genes a male could be possible... my guess.. girl ;) and a very pretty one

[twig braker]

thank you i think its a pretty good looking bird too :D

ya i am starting to think it is a girl, when i bought it the person said it was male but i dont think she knew what she was talking about because her only reason was it had dark orange cheeks. sadly i know nothing about the parents and i dont think i can find out:( so i just have to wait for more signs of behavior.

those pictures actually came out better than i thought now that i look at them, just when i imported them they looked kinda bad

[sweetrsue]

The age of your bird is important as well. If your bird is a male it will molt out the darker yellow on it's wings between the ages of 6 and 12 months. Also the wing's and tail feathers should tell you something. There again the age is an issue. Young males will have the same markings as females of any age. The behavior (if male) will start to become apparent around 4 months of age.

[huskymom]

my Maui is a girl and has deep orange cheeks... shes pied too

the cheek intensity sexing might apply to normal greys and normal cinnamons.... the rest are a gamble IMO...

[sweetrsue]

You are correct! Dark orange cheek patches mean nothing!

[twig braker]

im pretty sure he is pretty young but im not totally sure. i have checked his tail many times for barring under good light and have seen nothing, but i here they can be really hard to see but i wouldnt know. i wish i knew the age atleast. the parents would be even better

[sweetrsue]

Barring can be tricky on a Pearl as well. Sometimes it is reduced to a splotchy looking line on the outer edge of the feather. The cheek patch thing is really a misconception. On a Gray or Cinnamon the male have no body color on their faces so the cheek patches stand out more. They really aren't any brighter.

[Danielle]

I think Ivy and Flash have exactly the same cheek colour, they're both a really vivid orange. They're cinnamons, but Ivy is a pearl and Flash is a pied pearl, if that makes a difference. Maybe after their first moults they'll be different.

I'm new to the cheek patches, my other four are whitefaces so it's never come up before.

[Aly]

I love cheek patches, not that wf are not pretty because they are...I just have a thing for bright colors.

[sweetrsue]

The only reason the cheek patches ever look different on a female is because on most mutations the body color is infused over that area. It really is just a misconception that a male has a brighter cheek patch. It just doesn't have the body color competing with it making it appear less bright. So on a Lutino no body color is on the face and there really isn't a different between the sexes. There will be varying degrees of color on different birds but it has nothing to do with sex.

[bigmikey36]

Here's a picture of my Belle. She's a beautiful lutino pearl with VERY bright cheek patches

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll17/bigmikey_36/022-1.jpg
Mikey

[sweetrsue]

She IS a beauty!