# How do cockatiels choose their mate?



## KaylaHansa (Aug 8, 2012)

Does the male usually choose the female, or the other way around?

Also, what is considered desirable or attractive? i.e certain type of personality or color


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## dshiro2012 (Feb 4, 2013)

I think in the Bird world the more attractive and colorful the male is, the more a female will want to be with them, I think it's supposed to be a sign of good health. 

This is why when you look at a Peacock, the male is the one with all of the colors and the female is the one who is brown. 

Also, when it comes to the birds choosing, I'm not sure. I put my female in with my male when she turned 8 weeks old (I believe he was about 12 weeks at the time) and he showed a LOT of interest in her, and was constantly trying to get her to preen his feathers and he would try to do hers...But at the time she was still being fed her baby food and being weaned, so she didn't want anything to do with him. 

Now they are about 7 months old and they've both been in the same cage this whole time, and sleep together, eat and drink together, groom each other, and can't stand to be away from one another (They will call to each other if one is taken out of the room until they find each other). Basically, I think it may depend on the birds. It could be instantaneous for both, or take a while. It's just a good thing not to rush things, and give them time to get used to one another.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The male puts on a show for the female and she decides whether he's acceptable or not. Of course he has to be attracted to her in the first place. So he decides first whether he likes the hen, and then she decides whether she likes him too. 

I have seen it happen the other way around though. Sometimes a hen will decide that she likes a male who isn't interested in her. She doesn't put on a show for him, but she follows him around relentlessly (possibly for months) until he accepts the inevitable and starts returning her interest.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Females choose who THEY want to mate with. This is why the males have the bright faces and such, to attract the hen. That's also why they do the heart wings and beak banging and all the singing. 

There isn't anything in particular that a hen looks for. Some hens are attracted to a certain color, I have noticed. I had a hen who only liked normal grey males. It just depends on your hen. Other than that, there's really no way to know WHY a hen picked a certain male. We did have one breeder who believed birds could sense another bird with a desirable split (i.e. a lutino hen picked a pied male who turned out to be split lutino but the breeder hadn't know til there were babies) and would let her birds pick their own mates. I have done this and it works out nicely most of the time.


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## Oni (Feb 20, 2012)

So far I have 3 cocks and 3 hens and only one bird has picked a mate but he doesn't fancy her back. She was doing mating advances and everything. Put her with a new cock and she mostly ignores him 

Sent from my SK17i using Tapatalk 2


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## klaviary (Apr 7, 2010)

I have males normally solicit the hens (as is in most of the animal kingdom it seems...) but I have a few great hens who will pick out males and solicit them. They are often one's that exhibit very loose social bonds and will solicit many males if it strikes her "liking".  

Many times unless the pair is separated from a group flight, a really strong bond is hard to achieve. This is often because of fighting withing the group, power struggles, lack of nesting space, etc etc. When a pair is comfortable 8 times out of 10, they have no issues settling down with a mate. Cockatiels (with their gregarious, flocking nature) really are opportunistic in their mate chosing.  Extremely Bonded mates seem, in my experience, to be much better parents than those who participate in the "mate of the month club". LOL


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