# Do you think my cockatiel is male or female? Need opinions.



## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

This bird is very confusing without DNA sexing! Lol.

So I have a whiteface pied cockatiel, who the breeder says is male because the pearl gene was bred into him. His father was a visual pearl and the mother was albino. Which apparently means, all the chicks that turned out to have pearls would be female, and the ones that didn't would be male. I'm not sure if this one really didn't turn out to have pearls or not. His pied coloring looks a little suspicious to me. He also has a few tail feathers that have "baring" on the underside of them, and his face is pretty grayed out. 

Here's some pics of what I'm talking about:










This pic is a little outdated. He has 2 more of those tail feathers now. 










What can you guys tell from his colors?

His personality is what really confuses me though. I will see him and my other cockatiel preening each other all the time, yet they fight just as much as they preen each other. My other cockatiel (which I know is a male) always sings to him when he wants to sing. The whiteface doesn't sing nearly as much as the other one does, but when he does he's A LOT better at singing than the other one. He knows many more whistles and will go on for over an hour! Then one other thing is that when I seperate the two of them, they freak out until they're back together.

I want to get him DNA sexed but I'm only spending my money on necessary things right now. 

So what do you think? Do you think he's more than likely a male? Or more than likely a female?


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

If the father was pearl then all the female chicks would be pearl. Your bird isn't pearl unless there's some unknown factor keeping the pearl from expressing itself (which does seem to happen sometimes). Pearl feathers would be grey with a white border, and the all-white feather on the bird's wing is just part of its pied-ness.

The bird does indeed have female markings under the tail, but juvenile males have female markings until they molt in their adult plumage. If your bird is mature then it's probably female and her pearl gene just isn't showing itself. If your bird is less than a year old it's probably male and the tailfeather markings will go away when he's older. If it's a male he's split to pearl.


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

tielfan said:


> The bird does indeed have female markings under the tail, but juvenile males have female markings until they molt in their adult plumage. If your bird is mature then it's probably female and her pearl gene just isn't showing itself. If your bird is less than a year old it's probably male and the tailfeather markings will go away when he's older. If it's a male he's split to pearl.


Well he's almost 10 months old so would that be considered "mature"? I know they get their adult plumage around 6 months... Also what the heck does it mean when a bird is "split" to a certain mutation? I never understood what that meant.


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## WallyBird (Nov 23, 2009)

It depends on his/her molting cycle and when they start, and when they finish. I have an 8 month old tiel who is definitely a male, yet still has barring on the underside of the tail. So it just depends how long it will take him to lose those feathers and grow new ones, but once his first molt is finished then he is technically mature. Split to a certain mutation basically means he is split between two color mutations. For example, if your gray male had a couple yellow feathers on the back of his neck, he would be split to pied. His overall appearance is that of a gray, but even a little yellow spot where there should be gray indicates that his genes are split between gray and pied. I am no cockatiel guru, so perhaps other people can offer more technical explanations, but this is just some of the information I've gathered about tiel mutations.

As for your gender problem, you said he doesn't whistle as much as your male, but when he does he's a better singer? 
If he whistles and sings like your male than he is a male, if he just chirps and flock calls then he's a female.


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

WallyBird said:


> As for your gender problem, you said he doesn't whistle as much as your male, but when he does he's a better singer?
> If he whistles and sings like your male than he is a male, if he just chirps and flock calls then he's a female.


That's the thing he does both. He will only start singing when there's some music going on or he's with me and the other one isn't there though. But he will do the flock calls when the other one isn't there either, especially when I take one of them into a different room 

And I've also come across females (including my own a while back) that could sing pretty well. And yes I knew they were female because they were breeder birds.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The age of the first molt varies a lot. The age of six months is frequently cited, but Squeebis didn't have his first real molt until he was 15 months old.

Split means that the bird is carrying the gene for a recessive mutation but doesn't personally have the color. This happens when the bird has to get the gene from both parents to show the color, and only got it from one parent. Any tiel can be split to a recessive mutation (like pied and whiteface) and males can be split to a sex-linked recessive mutation (lutino, cinnamon, pearl). With the sex-linked mutations, females only need one copy of the gene to show the color and they can only get this copy from dad - sex-linked mutations do not pass from mother to daughter.


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

I know that. So then according to that information he's supposed to be a male.

What would explain the affections between him and my other bird though? That's what throws me off the most.


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## Cheryl (Dec 27, 2008)

Cockatiels live in flocks and actually have "friendships". When ANY of my birds were removed ALL of the birds would start flock calling to that one. The sex does not matter.
Same sex pairs have even been seen attempting to mate. So the affections between your birds doesn't really depict the sex.


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

That's strange. Hmm. Well I guess maybe I will have to wait until he gets a little more mature to see if those female markings go away then. I think he's molting right now though because he's had pin feathers all over him lately... But those tail feathers that I was saying he had two more of them now, he just got those within the last 2 weeks. I dunno. Maybe I just have to wait a little longer.


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## Dezdemona (Jul 23, 2009)

I have no idea about their sex, but they are adorable!


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