# Male or Female Pearl?



## HelenaQ (Jan 12, 2015)

First of all - pester me for breaking quarantine!
I trusted the woman who sold me the baby; I always bought cockatiels from her (4 now, though two of them disappeared and it was not by illness) and they're extremely healthy to this day. 
Anyways, I regret it because I'm the worst kind of anxious and paranoid person you could imagine and now I'm thinking about the risks and it pains me. 
Who knows, right?!​
Secondly, I'm new here and the forum is amazing! Thank you for this bunch of information.

My question is:

Is this young tiel a Pearl *Male* for real?

This album contains the picture of the cockatiel's back (the molting pearls) and its face (brighter than I suppose it should be if it was a female).

I'm pretty sure it eats by itself already but it still makes the "radio" sound babies do, even though it "whistles" like a normal cockatiel too, so I suppose it must've already gotten past 2 and maybe 3 months (just got it so haven't had the time to check if it sings or not). It's terribly docile and so cute (it also has weird foot when I got him on my hands/fingers, as if he's a cripple but he seems to walk normally).

It's gotten a _much brighter_ yellow head than most pearls do as you can see in the picture, and it also lost a giantly noticeable amount of its pearls. His "brother" seemed a little older, and also lost a bit of the pearl but his head was quite less yellow. I'm pretty sure he is *not* pied, so... He should be a male, right?
The woman assured me that he was indeed a male, and so was his brother.

This woman gets a lot of cockatiels so I don't know if the person she got it from had done the sex test. I ordered it already though but I don't really want to deal with my anxiousness until the results are done.

Thanks in advance!


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

How old is the baby? Pearls are too young to tell gender until after their first molt. He'd also be a little young to start singing too. Any ideas what the parents were? He's definitely not pied though.


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## HelenaQ (Jan 12, 2015)

roxy culver said:


> How old is the baby? Pearls are too young to tell gender until after their first molt. He'd also be a little young to start singing too. Any ideas what the parents were? He's definitely not pied though.


Yeah I know how it works, I had a WF female pearl once and thought it was a male even though it had basically 100% of its pearls (it was 2 months old too). After her first molt and the gender test... Well, perfect illusion. My Brad was a girl. lol

And I have no idea. Old enough to eat by itself I suppose, I'd bet two months. And I think it was a Female Pearl x WF Male breeding, or Female Pearl x Normal Grey, the woman couldn't tell me for sure but she said the previous owner assured her that both were males.

Its brother seemed to be losing the pearls too, so I assume they were both males but this one I brought (Eden is its name) had a much brighter yellow face and much more pearls lost on its back, so I'd say it's male, yes.

I already have a Cinnamon Female (my profile old, old pic) and idk why he seems bigger than her even though she's like years older. Obviously her face is not yellow, but his face is and his cheeks are much more orange too.

I can't believe it's a female, but I wanted to be sure... I ordered the gender kit but... RIP me until it arrives.


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## ParrotletsRock (Oct 8, 2013)

A male baby does not start to lose his pearl markings until he is 7-8 moths old and starts his 1st big molt, at 2 months a baby will still have all of his baby coloring and you cannot tell.


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## HelenaQ (Jan 12, 2015)

ParrotletsRock said:


> A male baby does not start to lose his pearl markings until he is 7-8 moths old and starts his 1st big molt, at 2 months a baby will still have all of his baby coloring and you cannot tell.


Well, I know very well babies can't be distinguished regarding gender.

In this case then he must be older because a great part of his back is no longer pearl-marked as the first picture of the album shows.

I'm pretty sure my old WF female pearl has started to "molt" the first time as a 2/3 months old only (they indeed do molt at that age, though it's not a full molt since it happens little by little - like head first, then the other feathers) but I'm sure it was happening. The feathers fell, then grew again normally. No, it wasn't an illness, that's just normal!

She was always healthy (2 years with me) until she got scared by something my sister broke while cleaning the house and flew off an open window while I wasn't looking. When I went looking for her, someone had already taken her and I miserably searched all over the my neighborhood... And I'm sure she was a baby that age for real because I remember I had to handfeed her for like a month until she was probably 3-4 months old and started eating seeds. When molting she didn't lose any markings, because obviously it was a female.

In this case, a lot of pearl markings have disappeared from Eden's back already and you can tell from far that his face is too yellow for a female. Yet, I can't be sure until the test arrives, despite his coloration being almost impossible for a female.


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## ParrotletsRock (Oct 8, 2013)

HelenaQ said:


> Well, I know very well babies can't be distinguished regarding gender.
> 
> In this case then he must be older because a great part of his back is no longer pearl-marked as the first picture of the album shows.
> 
> ...


He may be a pearl pied, in that case he (or she) would have areas clear of pearling and also could have a yellow face. The cinnamon pearl pied in this pix is a hen, the lutino is a male, they are my breeding pair.


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## HelenaQ (Jan 12, 2015)

ParrotletsRock said:


> He may be a pearl pied, in that case he (or she) would have areas clear of pearling and also could have a yellow face. The cinnamon pearl pied in this pix is a hen, the lutino is a male, they are my breeding pair.


Nope, he's definitely not pied! You can see in the pics. If he was pied, then all his head should be yellow or the back/wings/any other body part would have mixed colors but nope it's all normal, he's a common pearl that lost quite a lot of pearl markings on his back and also gained a lot of yellowish tone on his face for whatever reason if it wasn't a molt. 
I have a cinnamon female (split to pied) so I can tell that he has _a loooooot_ more of a bright yellow face than she does, also his cheeks colors are so freaking strong!


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

A normal pearl split to pied can also have a brighter yellow face. I've noticed that normal pearls in general tend to have a brighter yellow face than other pearl types, for whatever reason. Honestly, once you have the DNA test results you'll know for sure.

If he is split pied, he can retain those pearls for much longer. My Fuzzy did. Normal pearl split pied, kept some of his pearls for over two years. Tail barriing too, which is another way to tell adult tiels apart. Babies can have their first molt as early as 3 months old and this is considered a first full molt so it very well could be that's what happened to him and since he has kept some of his pearls he may be split to pied. He will lose more and more of them as he ages.


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## HelenaQ (Jan 12, 2015)

roxy culver said:


> A normal pearl split to pied can also have a brighter yellow face. I've noticed that normal pearls in general tend to have a brighter yellow face than other pearl types, for whatever reason. Honestly, once you have the DNA test results you'll know for sure.
> 
> If he is split pied, he can retain those pearls for much longer. My Fuzzy did. Normal pearl split pied, kept some of his pearls for over two years. Tail barriing too, which is another way to tell adult tiels apart. Babies can have their first molt as early as 3 months old and this is considered a first full molt so it very well could be that's what happened to him and since he has kept some of his pearls he may be split to pied. He will lose more and more of them as he ages.


I see, I just find it very weird that he lost A LOOOOT of his pearl markings, it couldn't be a female. And the face couldn't be that yellow, I remember when I was choosing between his brother and him, he was much more yellow and had lost much more pearl markings. But yeah, I guess I'll need to wait for the DNA test haha


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> I see, I just find it very weird that he lost A LOOOOT of his pearl markings, it couldn't be a female. And the face couldn't be that yellow, I remember when I was choosing between his brother and him, he was much more yellow and had lost much more pearl markings. But yeah, I guess I'll need to wait for the DNA test haha


Pearl doesn't play by the normal grey rules so everything that you would normally go by in a normal grey goes out the window with pearls. Mutations are funny that way.


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