# Beak Color to Determine Age



## scootergirl762

I know when they are young, Normal Gray's have Pink Beaks? Stewies is a light gray. I was told he was anywhere from 8 months to a little over a year old. Will his beak change to black when he's older? Or is this the adult color?


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## MeanneyFids

i have noticed that my tiels beaks were lighter when they were babies and they darkened a bit with age, however, beak colour is more determined by mutation. his beak looks like my dally's which is two-toned and light in colour... looking at Stewie in your siggy, he is split pied, and his beak also says the same thing, since its a kind of striped beak. it wont get black as he gets older. if anything, the darker part of his beak *might* get a little darker, but it wont be a solid black 


here's dally's beak when she was a baby:





and here is her beak now, at 3 years old:


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## scootergirl762

MeanneyFids said:


> i have noticed that my tiels beaks were lighter when they were babies and they darkened a bit with age, however, beak colour is more determined by mutation. his beak looks like my dally's which is two-toned and light in colour... looking at Stewie in your siggy, he is split pied, and his beak also says the same thing, since its a kind of striped beak. it wont get black as he gets older. if anything, the darker part of his beak *might* get a little darker, but it wont be a solid black
> 
> 
> here's dally's beak when she was a baby:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> and here is her beak now, at 3 years old:


Thank you! Can I ask how you can tell he's split pied? I'm so confused now  and I've only ever had Normal Grays way back when mutations where really hard to find. So I'm incorrect when I call him a Normal Gray? His cage mates, were pearls and also a cinnnamon. I think they were all siblings, if that's possible, but not all from the same clutch. Much appreciate the help!


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## MeanneyFids

he is a normal grey split pied. you arent wrong in calling him a normal grey.


look at his beak, and look at his head. his beak is patched, which is caused by the pied gene. the back of his head has a few white feathers randomly there, which is caused by the pied gene. he's not a visual pied, so he is still a normal grey. however, he carries the gene as a hidden gene  if that helps lol genetics are confusing. i cant give you a completely thorough technical explanation like tielfan can, but i can give you the generic terms for it all.





both of my tiels are split pied. Dally has two pied feathers--one on her neck and one on her belly. plus she has a striped beak and one pink toenail. tsuka has a striped beak, and when he had wingspots, he had the long stripes instead of spots. all of these are split pied signs.


looking at your siggy, i see Stewie also has a pink rear claw on his left foot, which is a split to pied sign as well. 


but visually, he is a normal grey.


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## scootergirl762

Thank you so much! I thought it odd that he had random white feathers -- I have a lot to learn about mutations! I kept thinking I needed glasses when I looked at his beak, or it was the light etc. LOL. Thanks for taking the time to explain, I appreciate it and I understand it a bit now.


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## MeanneyFids

genetics are incredibly confusing, but i find cockatiel genetics and mutations so much easier to figure out compared to lovebirds... im just starting to understand those... i wont even touch budgie genetics with a ten foot pole lol too much!! 


basically, the pied gene, it means one of his parents at least carried the pied gene (be it visually or as a split). so he inherited one pied gene from the parent(s) and shows it as a split. if he had got 2 of the pied genes from both parents, he would have been a visual pied.

so, because he is split pied, if you paired him with a hen who also carried the pied gene (split or visual) you would get some pied babies. 


it's a recessive gene, meaning both parents need to carry it in order to pass it along visually to babies.


Stewie is also split whiteface, meaning one of his parents also carried the whiteface gene. You can tell that split based off of the white rim at the side of his mask, just behind the red cheek. plus his red cheek has some yellow streaking into it. so that makes him a normal grey split pied whiteface. whiteface is another recessive gene, meaning both parents have to carry it to get visuals, but only one needs to carry it to pass on a split.


as to whiteface split signs:


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## scootergirl762

Thank you! I was scrolling through the link to the slideshow and saw the whiteface and said....I wonder if Meanneyfids would think I'm crazy if I said I thought he might have whiteface too? I had noticed that little halo/streaking thing. You've really taught me something here today!

As far as budgies go? Um, I'll just stick to that's a pretty blue one or yellow one - there are so many variations I've seen I never even thought they'd all have names.


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## MeanneyFids

yeah FAR too many lol they have the most mutations of any parrot, and lovebirds have the second most.

and never a crazy question  if you notice something about your bird, theres never anything wrong with asking about it


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## scootergirl762

MeanneyFids said:


> yeah FAR too many lol they have the most mutations of any parrot, and lovebirds have the second most.
> 
> and never a crazy question  if you notice something about your bird, theres never anything wrong with asking about it


Thank you!


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## scootergirl762

This photo really shows that Halo....I love it!

stewie by The Adventures of Dropstitchknitter, on Flickr


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## Tequilagirl

MeanneyFids said:


> he is split pied, and his beak also says the same thing, since its a kind of striped beak. it wont get black as he gets older. if anything, the darker part of his beak *might* get a little darker, but it wont be a solid black


Oh this makes me happy! I love Tequila's pink stripey beak!


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