# Female pearl cockatiel losing her speckles? (not urgent)



## Katan (Feb 26, 2010)

Is it normal for female pearl cockatiels to lose their speckles? 

My little Lilly is 8 years old. She laid her first eggs last November and she had a bit of trouble with egg-binding. I had her at the vet a couple of times and she seems to be healthy now (-better now that she has stopped laying), but over the last couple of months she has moulted off almost all of her speckled feathers. She's gone from being very, very speckled to being almost entirely grey on her back now. 
She's still gorgeous, of course. But I thought I should enquire about it in case it's an indication of something I should be concerned about (like maybe deficiency in nutrients or something specific from laying eggs?) 

Has anyone here had any experience with this? 

Thank you.



This was taken a few years ago but it's the best picture I have of her back (even though it's not a very clear picture)









This one's from around October last year. 









And this is her now, today. She almost looks like a different bird...


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Posting some good clear pix's of her back would be helpful. Also if you have some pix's of her back prior to the change in the pearl pattern for comparison would be helpful.


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## Katan (Feb 26, 2010)

That's a good idea. I've edited and added them to the first post.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I see in your personal info you have 2 cockatiels. The bird that is molted looks like a male. Is the other bird pearl also? I can see that in the 2 last pixs the bird has a green band on the left leg. I Have known pearl males to keep their pearl for several years before molting them out. But I have never encountered a female molting out her pearls. I have the opposite problem of non-pearled hens molting in a few pearls.


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## Katan (Feb 26, 2010)

My other bird is a lutino (also female -that's her bathing in my avatar picture.) 
People have often commented that Lilly seems too colourful to be a female, but I was told by her breeder that she was female and I always thought that she behaved like a female (my first cockatiel was a male.) I guess if I wasn't sure before, then seeing her lay eggs (and seeing her have trouble with it  ) was enough to convince me. 
I didn't know that non-pearled hens could sometimes moult in pearls, that's interesting. I wonder if Lilly has a lot of male hormones in her or something.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Wow, that is really strange, it is normal for the males to lose their pearls but females I have read should retain them for life.

The only thing I can think is maybe after having problems with egg laying that it has effected her hormones, as far as I understand the pearling is linked to the hormones so maybe a drop/change in hormones as caused her to moult them out.

Once she has settled back down maybe they will grow back in? you will have to keep us posted on her progress.

:tiel5:

Jenny


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## Katan (Feb 26, 2010)

That would make sense to me (though I'm really no expert on these things.) I surely will keep you posted. I kind of miss her pearls, but ultimately I'm just very, very glad that she's still alive and healthy.


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## spraymillet (Mar 2, 2010)

Pearls are my favorite mutation! But she is still very beautiful, and I'm glad you are most concerned with her health, it shows how much you love her.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

I can understand you would like to see the pearls again, it make the birds stunning in my opinion, I am hoping mine turns out to be a girl, although so far she hasn’t done anything that seems to be male behaviour so my gut is telling me girl and is going through first moult and feathers are still coming through pearl, so looking likely girl, when I actually purchased my bird I had no idea that the males lose the pearl’s it was only when I started looking up information on what colour my bird was I found out, either way I will still love my bird she/he is an amazing pet and we have bonded already, like you have with your bird, but I can see where you are coming from, I am taking lots of pictures just in case, lol

Jenny


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## Katan (Feb 26, 2010)

Thank you  She's a lovely bird. <3

I hope yours turns out to be a girl too, Jenny (she (or he) is very cute!) I didn't find out that the males lose their pearls until I noticed Lilly losing hers and looked it up. I had heaps of photos of both of my birds on my cell phone, but a few weeks back someone stole my bag -my bag, which had my phone in it, of course- so I guess I won't be seeing them again. That made me quite sad, because they're not something I can replace... But it made me very glad that I had taken some with my actual camera as well.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I am working on a possible new mutation or color variation. it is so sad and disappointing that the males lose their beautiful pearls. Over the years I have had some odd marked birds that have been genetically split to pearl but showed partial pearling and also have retained some of the female colors to their tail feathers. Over the next year I will be working with these to try in get a 3rd generation and hopefully figure out how this all works. But my goal is to have a normal colored male that has a marbled pattern to his back and keeps it for life, and also keeps the color and barring to the tail.


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## Jenny10 (Feb 27, 2010)

Katan, that was a shame you had your phone taken, but at least you had a few photo’s on your camera from before.

SRTIELS, good luck with your breeding plan, if you could create a new type of mutation that would be just awesome for the cockatiel and buyers in general, lol.

I am thinking of starting a thread just asking how many people actually bought a pearl:tiel5: not realising if it was male it would lose the pearls:tiel2: (that’s of course if people are honest and admit it, lol:blush, I don’t know about in other countries but in some pet shops over here and breeders they charge extra for a pearl bird compared to the standard grey and yet should it be male it loses that effect you initially actually paid more for in the first place, don’t get me wrong I will love my bird regardless, but I would never imagine that a bird could change so much because of hormones, if they charge extra the seller should at least be up front about it or be certain they are selling a hen, lol

Jenny


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