# Cockatiel Ghost Pearls?



## mlj722 (Feb 19, 2017)

So, I was reading around in the forum and I came across a post regarding "ghost pearling". 
The creator of the post was asking about the light and dark coloration of his split Cockatiel and it made me curious. 

Enzo is a (Cinnamon?) Pearl Cockatiel, and his test says he's male, so I know he'll more than likely lose all his beautiful spotting (it makes me cry cause he's just gorgeous). 
However, I was wondering, since he has visible spotting, will he have these ghost pearls too? Or will he just become a plain grey? 

Basically, what do male Pearl Cockatiels end up looking like? And how long will it be until he loses all his pearls? He's currently only 4 months old.

EDIT: Is it possible for him to possibly be split to Cinnamon? The breeder said he was Cinnamon, but wouldn't show me photos of the parents after I'd bought him, so I'm unsure if both parents were Cinnamon or not.
Also, can anything else visible be seen that could be evident for him to be split to anything else such as Pied or etc.? (Note the photo on the right/2nd photo was from about 2 months ago)


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

He's not cinnamon. He will have some remaining ghost pearls once his adult plumage comes through, and he'll keep some of the yellow on his tail feathers, but other than those details he will look like a normal grey.

Here's a pic of my adult male pearl (almost 4 years old) for reference:


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

He's much too dark to be cinnamon. The amount of ghost pearling varies from bird to bird - it can be very noticeable and well defined, or it can be sort of vague. 

Elvis has the most noticeable ghost pearls in my flock. I don't know whether he's visual pearl or split. He doesn't have the mottling on the tail that visual pearls supposedly always have, but I don't have a huge amount of confidence in that particular rule.



















Azazel is cinnamon and definitely split to pearl. His ghost pearling is nothing special.










Squeebis doesn't have the pearl gene at all, but his ghost pearls look about the same as Azazel's.


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## Janalee (Jul 25, 2012)

*ghost pearls*

Bennie is a pearl pied male. Here's a pic of him and his ghost pearls take this past Christmas. They have gotten much lighter since he was a baby. He will be 5 in October.


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## mlj722 (Feb 19, 2017)

Oh! 
All of you guys, thank you so much! 

I was wondering though, what are visual marks for a Cockatiel if they are split to Pied? 
Is it any different in the 'tiel is a Pearl?


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## vampiric_conure (Jul 8, 2012)

Split to pied birds usually have a bit of spotting, or large patches of white, behind their crest. It's hard to miss in most birds  I know it's apparent in Greys and Cinnamons. Not sure about Pearls.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

If it's just a small mark it'll be harder to see on a pearl, but if it's a big splotch it'll be obvious. My pearl hen has a splotch on the back of her head. This might help you figure out what's going on with small marks: a pied feather will be completely yellow, while a pearl feather will be grey with yellow markings.


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## mlj722 (Feb 19, 2017)

tielfan said:


> If it's just a small mark it'll be harder to see on a pearl, but if it's a big splotch it'll be obvious. My pearl hen has a splotch on the back of her head. This might help you figure out what's going on with small marks: a pied feather will be completely yellow, while a pearl feather will be grey with yellow markings.


Oh! 
Now that you mentioned these small splotches behind the crest, I can see these in the previous split Pied that you showed! 

At what age do these splotches typically appear? Are they evident in birds before their first molt, or is it after? Is this the same with the tail feathers? 

I ask about the tail feathers since that's how my 'tiels tail looks at the moment.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

A pied tickmark will usually be there when the baby gets its first feathers. The pied mutation affects the migration of melanin-producing cells in the embryo, so some areas end up not having the ability to produce the grey color. These areas will be yellow right from the start. 

The tail feathers on my hen are pearl feathers not pied. A pied feather will be completely yellow, with no dark color at all. Pearl tail feathers can be mostly yellow but they'll have some dark coloring on them. You can see that her tail feathers have dark quills and some dark speckles.


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