S E X

There is a problem telling the sex of some of our beautiful cockatiels. Sometimes this can be very disconcerting. Because with certain mutations it is almost impossible to determine  whether you have a boy or a girl, other than having the bird medically examined.

There are ways that  some people use, they say will discover the sex. If the bird has a Flathead versus a Roundhead, or spots-under-the wing, or round eyes versus elliptical eyes, or they may even use a paper clip on a string etc. We are not saying that these methods do not work. They just don't work for all of us.

Another way is to check the pelvic bones. The pelvic bones are located at the vent area. The vent is, ah, um, er, where they go to the bathroom from.  The pelvic bones of the male are close together like a "Y" or "II". The pelvic bones of the female are wide apart like a "U". The sad part about this is that sometimes this is hard to determine even by the most experienced cockatiel person. And especially with a young bird.

Sometimes the easy birds to tell the sex of are, the grays, cinnamons, fallows, some pearls and some pieds. The faces of most of these birds (not all) if they are males will turn to a yellow eventually.  While the hen's face remains gray or cinnamon or mottled.

Another way is if the lateral tail feathers have bars, the bird is a girl. In the birds that are lutino  or have lightly colored tail feathers you might have to use a black light. But the bars will be visible if they are there. (except for whiteface lutinos)

Now for the heartbreaker, all immature birds, have the bars on the lateral tail feathers. You will have to wait till the first molt which happens sometime between 4 and 11 months.

Another way to tell the sex of some of your birds is by genetics. For example, a lutino male and a normal gray if they produce any lutinos they will be female or a cinnamon male and a normal female if there are any cinnamon babies they  will be females, etc.  Excluding any other genetic input.

We do not  guarantee the sex of any of our birds. We tell the people that get any of our birds, we believe this bird to be this or that bird to be that.

If you do get the gender of bird that you had hoped to get then that is wonderful. But either gender can be a good companion bird. It is not the sex of the bird that makes it a good bird it is the interaction between the two of you that makes a good bird, a good bird and vis-à-vis a good bird owner, a good bird owner.