# Is it possible that my 8 month old cockatiel has already found a mate?



## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

So I'm having another problem with my 'tiels. 

The problem is they're looking way too attached to be opposite sex birds. 
And the breeder I bought them from insisted me they were both males....

I'm thinking they may already be "mates" cuz of their behavior. The "Female" has been bowing her head to the male. She's not anywhere near as vocal as the male. She freaks out whenever I take the male out of site. The male was singing to her a few times. And he's also bowed his head to her a few times. And lastly, I just separated them a few days ago into their own cages right? Before I did so the "Female" was starting to be really sweet to me. She'd let me pet her and pick her up, but now since the separation she wants nothing to do with me. She's been hissing at me if I so much as come near her. 

So I'm thinking these birds might be "mates"... 
Only problem is that the "Female" is only 8 months old... Is it even possible for birds to mate that early?


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## LuvMyTiels (Dec 31, 2009)

Can you post pictures of them? My female is approximatly 6 months old and she turns into a hussy when she hears my male sing. That is young though. At 8 months your female is entering puberty. If you post pictures we could try to tell the sex.


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## seaofdreams (Dec 29, 2009)

They may be bonded but not necessarily in a sexual way. Also they don't need to be opposite sexes to form a bond, I have a bonded pair of hens despite there being two other unbonded males in the aviary, haha.


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## Kerry78 (May 25, 2009)

My female is a tart she has 2 Boys with her,
luckily for me my youngest boy isn't fully qualified thankgod 

but my 5 year old boy is lol

It sounds like they have bonded how long were they together in the cage for?
tiels often call to one another if one is away out of sight, they often do it to people so if uyou call back sometimes it helps


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

LuvMyTiels said:


> Can you post pictures of them? If you post pictures we could try to tell the sex.


The one on the left is the one I suspect is female. She's a whiteface pied.
And the pastelface on the right is obviously a male. Lol


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

Kerry78 said:


> How long were they together in the cage for?


About a week in the cage I got for them.

The one I suspect is female is only 8 months old.
The other one is 1 year & 8 months. The younger one has been around the older one who is a male along with 2 other supposed males ever since he/she was bought from the breeder. So maybe he/she is just attached to my other bird? He is the oldest of the whole group that used to be with the former owner.


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## allen (Aug 25, 2007)

ok at this stage at 8 months can they be a bonded pair YES i have had some that tried to mate at 9-11 months old but the recomended is 18 months the only sure way to see if your teils are same sex is dna test a dna test is 99.9 % acurate another posible way is to no what her parents are but that is not as acurate as dna


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

Yeah I'm planning on getting that one DNA sexed really soon here. I need to send off for the kit and all still.

As for the parents, the breeder was really confusing me. She was saying that she could tell the sex through the colors because the cockatiel is supposed to have pearl in it. She said since pearl is a "Sex linked" mutation that all the boys would be pieds and all the girls would be pearl... She said that the father was a "visual" pearl and something else mixed in, and that the mother was an an albino with something else mixed in. I would say exactly what she said but I deleted the email lol.


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## allen (Aug 25, 2007)

in order to see both male and female pearls both parents would have to be split to pearl as with the males though the would loose the pearls in 2-3 molts i,m sure others will respond to this as well


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## Mythara (Apr 9, 2009)

Pearl is a sex linked gene. In cockatiels males are XX and females are XY. The pearl gene is carried with the X chromosome. So males need two copies of pearl to be visibily pearl, and females only need one copy. Males get one copy from each parent. Females get their copy from their fathers, and get a Y chromosome from their mothers. If the mother isn't pearl, and the father is either pearl or split to pearl, then all the pearl chicks the a nest will be female. If only the mother is pearl then all the males will be split to pearl, and the females won't have it at all. If both parents are pearl, then the pearl chicks could be either gender. Lutino, cinnamon and a couple of other mutations work the same way.


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## Luti-Kriss (Dec 23, 2009)

Mythara said:


> Pearl is a sex linked gene. In cockatiels males are XX and females are XY. The pearl gene is carried with the X chromosome. So males need two copies of pearl to be visibily pearl, and females only need one copy. Males get one copy from each parent. Females get their copy from their fathers, and get a Y chromosome from their mothers. If the mother isn't pearl, and the father is either pearl or split to pearl, then all the pearl chicks the a nest will be female. If only the mother is pearl then all the males will be split to pearl, and the females won't have it at all. If both parents are pearl, then the pearl chicks could be either gender. Lutino, cinnamon and a couple of other mutations work the same way.


I just found the email. She said: 

*"His dad is a visual pearl and his mom is an albino...if you know anything about cockatiel genetics, pearl is a sex-linked trait, so with this pairing I get all pearl hens and all pied males."

"The dad is a WF Pearl Pied and the mom is an Albino split to Pied or maybe a visual, but I won't know until I test breed her a few more times." *

I read what you said but it's still very confusing to me, especially when applying it to the birds parents because they've got all kinds of things in them...


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