# Cinnamon Pearl Pied Cockatiel? Male or Female? Help. (Pics Inside)



## Avianintererest (Jan 7, 2013)

So 2 weeks ago I bought 2 normal grey tiels, a male and a female. They came together, they already had babies, 2 times. But unfortunately today, the male escaped my father's grasp when he was checking on them and today I had to go to a nearby petshop so to buy another male, with the purpose of putting him with the normal grey female in hope that they mate and make babies. 

So when I entered the premise, one particular cockatiel caught my eye, in short, I fell in love with how him. He whistled and kept looking at me and his colors really caught my eye. I guess the term for the mutation is 'Cinnamon Peal Pied'. The problem is, I am not so sure if he is a male or a female, although I am leaning to male. Here are a couple of pics, I would really appreciate your opinions 

*Also I am worried that she'll hurt him.* He's not agressive at all, but she on the other hand, she'd bite your finger off if she had the chance, she's really aggressive like many female tiels. 

*Her (left) and the new male/female (right)*










*His undertail.*










*Looking at me.* 










*Showing Off.*


----------



## Rose (Nov 15, 2012)

*to avianinterest*

Please message me?


----------



## Rose (Nov 15, 2012)

*new tiel*

Are your pictures actual pictures of your tiels' environment? 
I think you're going to have to be really careful here because from what I read, your female just lost her mate? She's sad and confused. Did you put the new tiel in with her right away? I'd really like to talk to you more about this scenario for the health of your new friends.


----------



## Avianintererest (Jan 7, 2013)

Rose said:


> Are your pictures actual pictures of your tiels' environment?
> I think you're going to have to be really careful here because from what I read, your female just lost her mate? She's sad and confused. Did you put the new tiel in with her right away? I'd really like to talk to you more about this scenario for the health of your new friends.


Yes, her mate, the normal grey mate, flew away this morning  Yes, pretty much right away. The female didn't look like it cared much but then she flew beside him. He really looked scared and started avoiding her.


----------



## Rose (Nov 15, 2012)

*Anybody?*

Can we figure this out?


----------



## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

you should have quarantined for 30 days in a separate cage and separate room before putting them together. it's to protect your birds from possible illness, as new birds often wont show illness. often stress of a new environment will bring out illness often and it can show within a few weeks after bringing him home. so, you could have just infected your old bird with disease if the new one was sick and hiding something.

i cannot view the photos on my mobile device, but if you add the photos as attachments i can see them that way.

i dont know the photos, but just in case, you might want to check your photos to be sure they comply with our dangerous situation rule. posting photos of cockatiels outside without a cage or harness, with dangerous animals--dogs, cats, rabbits, etc--or in other dangerous situations. these are not allowed on our forum. i cant see the photos, so i am not sure if there is even anything wrong, but you say your male flew away outside, so i might assume your tiels are housed outside.

if you post photos as attachments i will see them.

a cinnamon pearl pied... if there is lots of whistling then you can lead toward male, but if he has all his pearls, he might be too young to even breed. you also cant just throw two birds together and expect them to breed. you need a bonded pair or you can have problems with aggression amd negligence to chicks.


also, females are not known to be the more aggressive gender, so most females are not aggressive, in fact, females are known to be the more gentle and cuddly birds. so you are misinformed on that one and have an aggressive individual who sounds untame


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

Im leaning towards male because of the solid cinnamon vent feathers, and he is a cinnamon pearl, a picture of his back would help though. 

He is very young though, if hes a male he hasnt finished his first molt yet and so is under a year old, cockatiels need to be at least a year old, perferably more like 18 months old to breed. 

If he is a male he will lose all of his pearls and those yellow tail feathers will be replaced with solid cinnamon ones when he molts. 

Male behaviours are whistling, beak banging, and heart wings.

And also like Dallytsuka said you need to make sure your pair are bonded before breeding them in the future. http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?p=340169#post340169


----------



## Avianintererest (Jan 7, 2013)

Here's a picture of his back










He's very gentle, it actually lets me grab him softly and carry him around in my hand, unlike my hand-fed 6 month old whiteface!


----------



## flippityjib (Dec 13, 2012)

He's very cute. Maybe you can clip their wings if they are housed outside. Mine are clipped, but housed inside and it's a good thing because you just never know when they decide to take off. Mine go pretty much straight down so if I were outside they wouldn't go anywhere. We do have hawks and eagles all over the place, so being outside for mine is not an option.
Sorry for you losing you boy so soon after getting him. I bet you feel pretty bad.


----------



## Rose (Nov 15, 2012)

He's a real cutie!


----------



## SunnyNShandy (May 24, 2012)

Is there a chance you can change out the front metal grill on their cage? There is an awful lot of rust on it and that sure could be disastrous if they chewed on it. Being youngsters, I will bet they'll be chewing. I would think with the wood frame it would be relatively easy to swap it out? They are very cute and I am sure you want the best for them. Can you maybe prop up a branch or something to hang toys on?


----------



## Avianintererest (Jan 7, 2013)

The female looks like she likes him, she flies besides him all the time and grabs onto the cage, just like in the first picture, but he is avoiding her, flying to the other side. He's almost a year old, according to the pet shop owner. I can't really tell if it's a he or a she, his undertail is very confusing. He has some feathers that are completely yellow, and some that have faint horizontal lines. Maybe he is still molting the feathers of his tail? 

@paperesq : Yes, but the rust is only on the door-side of the cage. It's a big cage, like 2 metres wide. The rest of the cage has no rust at all. The food and the water holders are far away from the rusty door. But I understand your concern about the cockatiel chewing on the rusty door, I will temporary move them to another cage until I renovate the rusty door in the near future. 

Also I understand that they need to bond first before they decide to mate, that's why I didn't put a nestbox in the giant cage yet. I'll give them approximately 3 months of bonding time before putting a nestbox in their big cage (Mid April).


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

My biggest concern was the fact that there was no quarantine period going on. And since you don't really know what his age is and some males start molting younger than others, I would wait six months at least before breeding him, only because the younger male, the less likely they will be a good parent. Plus this gives extra bonding time to a pair. It took six months for my Cinnamon to accept Baby as her mate. And they may never bond, in which case they wont be able to ever breed.


----------



## Avianintererest (Jan 7, 2013)

roxy culver said:


> My biggest concern was the fact that there was no quarantine period going on. And since you don't really know what his age is and some males start molting younger than others, I would wait six months at least before breeding him, only because the younger male, the less likely they will be a good parent. Plus this gives extra bonding time to a pair. It took six months for my Cinnamon to accept Baby as her mate. And they may never bond, in which case they wont be able to ever breed.


Yes, but what really puzzles me is the fact that the normal gray male that was the female's normal gray mate for 2 years, escaped. I mean, they had babies 2 times prior the time I bought them and moved them to this cage. Why did he fly away like that? *Didn't he think about leaving his female companion behind? *

I have a hand-fed 6 month old male white face that I hand-fed personally since he was 13 days old, and when I go somewhere, he follows and perches on my head. When I leave the room, he calls for me. When I put him on my shoulders and go downstairs to drink or even go to the toilet, he stays on my shoulders and never flies away. 

*So tell me, how much different is the bond between two cockatiels and a human-cockatiel bond? 
*


----------



## Rose (Nov 15, 2012)

He doesn't think. He's a bird.


----------



## Avianintererest (Jan 7, 2013)

Rose said:


> He doesn't think. He's a bird.


But he feels right? So '*Didn't he feel he was leaving his companion behind?*'


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

No I don't think he knew what he was doing, he was an untame bird in a new home being handled by a human, he was probably scared and their first instinct when scared is to fly away. 

As responsible bird owners it is our job to try to make sure our birds are never put in the position where they can escaepe and fly away, but accidents do happen, and we can learn from them.


----------



## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

you keep avoiding the quarantine question. were you not aware of quarantine? 

your new male looks a bit tattered, i really hope he is not sick  you risk their health.

i would also install a safety door to prevent escapes since they're housed outdoors. papresq brings a good point on the cage--rust is not safe, outsidebars or not. they can still chew those bars. metal poisoning is seriously deadly. i would definitely replace the bars


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

You can't impose human feelings upon an animal, they don't think the way we do. We would be sad to leave someone behind, but they would be more happy to be free then to worry about a mate (the thinking is that they could easily find another.) So, no he didn't feel bad about leaving her behind at all.

I really hope that you didn't make your female sick by breaking quarantine.


----------

