# Baby Tiels



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

Hey so i replied to a kijiji ad today for these little cuties. The owner lives in my city( yay) their 10wks old and arent hand tame yet but have been handled. I asked about parents mutations because some of you might be able to tell gender by the parents. I especially like the pied( its a pied right?)  Let me know what you all think and ill let you know when i get an email back


----------



## Cheryl (Dec 27, 2008)

Yes, the baby looks to be a light pied. Very cute!


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

The problem with pied is even with knowing the parents mutation you wont be able to tell if its a girl or boy because both parents have to carry the pied gene to get pied babies...but that being said s/he is super cute!


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

oh okay im still getting familiar with genetics so i didnt know that thanks


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

so i just got an email back saying that she believes both babies are female ( dont think you can actually tell at this age without as you said a sex linked mutation). The father is a normal gray ( must be split to pied if they had a pied baby) and the mother is pied.....i wanted a male so looks like i might have to hold out for a male a bit dissapointing as shes selling them for quite cheap( $ 65)


----------



## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Since the pied is a light pied (meaning lots of dark feathers and not lots of yellow covering the body) you can look at the underside of the wings and tell sex. Look at the 10 lower feathers closest to the body. males will not have spots and females will. This is ONLY on young pieds, prior to the first adult molt. If they are over a year old, the hens will lose the dots closest to the body. Click on the pix for a larger veiw.


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

the male in your picture doesnt seem to have any spots is that because hes heavier pied or? also i dont know about lutinos but Aero has spots all the way until about 5 feathers from his body.....does this indicate female?


----------



## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

*but Aero has spots all the way until about 4 feathers from his body.....does this indicate female?*
*-------------------------------------*

Most times if the bird is under 9 months old it could indicate a male.


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

ohhh hmmmm maybe ill email the lady and ask her if theres anyway she can look under the pieds wings( itll be an odd question)


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

well i sent her the picture ( i hope its okay i used your picture srtiels) and asked if she could look if she can so hopefully its a male. hope she doesnt think im too much trouble lol


----------



## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Sending her the pix is a good idea. it is easier for her to understand what you are asking her to check for.


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

heres what i mean about Aeros spots.....just in case i wasnt clear


----------



## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Nice shot


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

so she emailed me back that she knows the babies are female because they have lines on their tails....I dont know if i should tell her thats not the case as i hate sounding like a know it all but.....she says shell let me know if she gets a male but if shes going by tail bars shell be waiting a looooong time for a male  I also emailed another guy he has a cinnamon whiteface 3months old super hand tame farther away ( only about 40 mins tho) and a lil more expensive ( $120) but he sounds like a more knowledgeable breeder so i asked if he knew if his tiel babies are males or not.


----------



## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

You could correct her and put it in a nice way.. (you won’t sound like a know-it-all) 

“I have spoken with other Cockatiel owners/Cockatiel breeders, and they have said that the mutations like the 2 babies you currently have, will have the bars on their tails up until they molt, and if the bars remain there after the molt, then they are females, if they molt out, they are males. ” 

She is giving misleading information and only telling you what she *thinks* they are, not being 100% sure they are indeed females.

Hopefully you will have better luck with the other breeder.


----------



## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

I had a lovely conversation with a breeder down the road on the phone
Me- Hello i was wondering if you had any cockatiels
Lady- Yes they have just hatched so they be ready in 9 weeks
Me- ok do you know what they are?
Lady- sorry its too early to say
Me- ok. What are there parents?
Lady- sorry i don't know


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

Some people shouldn't breed animals if they don't know everything about the animals their breeding... It breaks my heart seeing the people who are only in it for the money and don't really care about thier birds ( I know In most breeders this isn't the case but I've come across some pretty questionable ads)  aero is seriously my best friend and that's what I treat him as!! Wow rant


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Its ok to rant, it gets frustrating at times trying to find a baby and finding a good breeder to get one from. I had one breeder tell me he couldn't tell me the personality of the bird he was selling because he had never handled her. Well now that helps me almost none, because my hubby wanted to know if she was sweet and if she bit. He couldn't tell us that. It just makes it depressing at times!


----------



## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Cookies and  breeder was very lovely and wanted to know how cookie was getting along. Just have to find the good ones


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Yep! Hershey's breeder and I still email back and forth, I send him pictures of her from time to time because she was his little Chubby when he had her. Its nice to find one who really cares about their birds.


----------



## Cheryl (Dec 27, 2008)

It is sad when breeders can't even tell the simplest mutations apart along with not knowing that females and males look the same when they are younger. 
They should not be breeding birds and I would personally avoid them.

As for personality, you have to realize that some birds are bred to be breeders. Large operation breeders don't take the time to handle each bird and make them super sweet and tame. If the bird has never been handled it will not be sweet and not bite.. It will naturally view a human as a predator and of course take flight or fight. It is to be expected in most birds that are not hand fed or handled as chicks.


----------



## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

My new tiel hasnt been handled for a long time and he is mr hissy fit at the min


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

the people i emailed about the cinamon whiteface baby farther away from me were very nice they said they couldnt tell what sex he was because the parents could produce either sex but they said they might have more babies later on and they sent me a whole bunch of links and info on sexing cockatiels and whatnot and wished me good luck in finding a baby which was very nice


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I prefer the small time breeders than breed for quality not quantity ya know? It sounds like those people know what they're talking about. I saw one ad for a pineapple cockatiel...I'm assuming he meant pied because when I emailed to ask what mutation a pineapple cockatiel was what he described was a pied. Interesting right?


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

Omg I know sometimes I see some ads and I just wanna knock some people around lol I saw an ad for a pair of lovebirds and the picture was a pair of budgies!!! And yesterday I saw an ad for a pair of whiteface breeders with a HUGE cage and the cage was barely big enough for one tiel.....like some of these people that don't know what their talking about annoy me. Dont these people research before they get a pet?


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Probably not...they get them and then hope that what they have works. And then they accidentally breed them and don't know anything about what they're doing. Its sad for the birds.


----------



## Cheryl (Dec 27, 2008)

I've seen someone post that all of the birds they had for sale were split to "albino". -_-
I just wanted to smack them! I mean, of course the males could be split to WF AND lutino..but the females? You can't just be split to freakin albino.
I'm seen people who had lutino lutino pairs (both had bald spots). 
The cages in many ads I've seen are horrific..You'd think you'd at least clean it before you take a picture.

I have done so much research in finding breeders and what I have discovered is that most of the breeders that deeply care for their birds and know what they are doing will not ship, which messes me up a little bit LOL. There aren't any good breeders even relatively near me. I know pat tucker is probably the closest to me and she's still 5 hours away.


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

my biggest pet peeve in the tiel world are people who refer to cockatiels as either NORMAL or FANCY..... im like nooooooo its pied or pearl or whiteface or cinammon or combination but NOT fancy  like the women who owns the tiels in the first post to this thread she refers to the one baby as fancy and its mom as fancy.....as well as many pet stores. Now i can tell what cockatiels are what mutations most of the time thanks to this forum but its annoying asking what mutations they have and getting the reply " i have one normal and one fancy". because fancy could be any mutation.....sigh another rant


----------



## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

I think I got very lucky with the two breeders I've dealt with...

Echo's was very obviously knowledgable from the get-go...she had her own website so I was able to see what she fed the birds, what kinds of birds she owned, what toys she was selling etc etc. I picked Echo up from a bird fair but right away I could tell how sociable and well-handled he was, he wasn't nervous or bitey at ALL. And then she kissed him on the beak before putting him in the carrier, all teary-eyed. 

Fox's breeder knew the answers to all my emailed questions. I went to her house to get Fox, and her birds' cages were clean and all of her birds looked healthy. We talked at length and she told me little stories about the different birds (clearly handling them a lot and knowing them well). She showed me what pairs she had, what toys they liked, and a whole lot about Fox's history.

In both cases, I got hatch certificates (Fox's came with baby pictures!! Which I still squeal over a lot) and food samples. Echo's breeder even gave me different recipes for soft food that she makes.

But yeah, there are definitely bad breeders out there, and it can be very difficult to weed them out.


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

well i got Aero from the pet store and thankfully i picked the tamest not tame cockatiel ever( said the pet store owner) he was never really scared of me and stepped up the first day i got him but Im trying to find a hand tame tiel this time around although of course ill hand tame one if i happen to get one thats not tame.


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I totally agree with all of this...I have one lady I'm talking to now out here in Washington who has boys for sale and she says handtame in the ad then tells me when I ask her that they haven't been handled in a while. Then she says she has a friend who socializes her birds for her and she might have a lutino boy there. Why would someone else socialize your babies? And she says they're ten dollars more which is fine but the pet store out here sells them all for the same price no matter the color and these are still cheaper than that. I wish I was closer to FL at the moment as there's a breeder there that I absolutely love (besides srtiels of course!!) I got my mom's bird from her and she said she was getting out of normals and going to start working with some of the rarer mutations, but she hand raises her babies and just watching her with them, they love her. She also had a budgie who rules the house, she's never locked up and goes where she pleases. Its just heart-warming to meet someone like that. Now if only they lived closer!!! There are two breeders about two hours away from me that I'm waiting to see if they'll get the pastelfaces I want so fingers crossed!!!


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

Ohhhh pastelfaces lucky!!! My fav mutation is cinammon so I'm trying to locate a hand tame male cinammon ( or whiteface cinammon basically any cinammon combo) Its proving quite difficult I did find a breeder with a whiteface cinammon but they don't know what sex it is and the ad dissapeared so it's probably sold. I did see a gorgeous cinammon at the pet store that caught my eye but at the time my mom said no. So I'm still searching. I see you've got some cinammons in your flock


----------



## birdieness (Jul 28, 2007)

Gl on getting a baby. If you wait till winter is over its possible to ship a baby in. I've shipped many birds in myself.


----------



## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

lol reading the pineapple cockatiel has made my day :lol:


----------



## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

I have been to a breeders during feeding time and was shocked at the the time the baby was out of it's container. It took her less then 15 minutes to feed about 20 babies . I asked if they where taken out at any other time but feeding and she says "no". So that was all the socializing the babies got, yet she sold them as handfed and socialized. 

Sarah if you get to Barrie I have a whiteface cinammon pearl and a whiteface cinammon pied sitting on 6 eggs.


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Cinnamon is my favorite because its so soft looking...I love whitefaced cinnamons. Actually, the pastelface I'm looking for is a pastelface cinnamon pearl hen. Its really hard to find a bird when you're looking for such a specific mutation but fingers crossed! Too bad you aren't near me I have a whiteface cinnamon girl I'm trying to sell, the last one from my clutch. I've got to mix it up though a little bit or all I'll have are whitefaced cinnamons lol. A friend told me I needed some color so that's what I'm doing now, adding my color. There should be more babies available once spring is here its just so hard to wait for spring to get here!


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

Ohhhh Debbie That would be awesome!!! I'm not too far from Barrie it would be nice to get a tiel from someone on this forum who not only loves their cockatiels but also knows what their doing


----------



## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

My Mom is in Ajax so that is very close to you. My babies are always very well socialized. My daughters are 8 and 11 and as the babies get older they like to help socialize them. I find it helps get them used to different people. I also hand feed from about 2 weeks old. I am not a large breeder, it more of a hobby. I use to breed budgies for years. I have to say I really do enjoy it. 

I'll let you know when they start hatching.


----------



## xoxsarahxox (Dec 13, 2010)

OH YAY im excited now


----------



## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Looks like you might've found your breeder!!!


----------



## xxxSpikexxx (Jul 30, 2007)

Sounds like you are close 






Debbie05 said:


> I have been to a breeders during feeding time and was shocked at the the time the baby was out of it's container. It took her less then 15 minutes to feed about 20 babies . I asked if they where taken out at any other time but feeding and she says "no". So that was all the socializing the babies got, yet she sold them as handfed and socialized.
> 
> Sarah if you get to Barrie I have a whiteface cinammon pearl and a whiteface cinammon pied sitting on 6 eggs.


That is how Spike was hand fed  It was so fast the place recommends you visit them well they are weaning as much as possible, I guess to help hand tame them. I could only go and pick him out and then pick him up when he was weaned. I heard they have people come in to help play with the babies sometimes aswell but in the end it worked out for me


----------

