# Cockatiel



## LuckyPenny924 (Dec 1, 2011)

Hey all, 

Just wanted to see if there were any golden + cockatiel owners out there. our cockatiel is about a year and a half old, is a Lutino (white, yellow head, and orange patches on cheeks) and we still dont really know the gender.

We suspect Sunny is a girl by the types of mating 'dance' (if you will) sunny does but it is extremely hard to not call sunny 'Him' LOL

Outside of feather baring in the tail, blood testing....are there other tried and true-er methods for sexing a bird 


lol

Here is a pic:


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## Burd (Aug 11, 2011)

I'm a golden + Tiel owner as well! ^.^ I've owned Ladybird my 6 year old cinnamon Tiel for a few months now. A friend gave her to me.  She's the sweetest bird I've ever met and a real joy to be around.


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## Deber (Aug 23, 2011)

I have an Conga African Grey that we have had for almost 30 yrs. The Bird Vet told us she was a female by placing his finger at the base of her body from underneath. Said in a male the space was less than his first finger width, but with a female you could easily place your finger and the width was about this wide. Said female birds were larger there to allow eggs to pass. Gabby is a hoot and can talk very well. She knows all the family and all the dogs by name. Can't imagine our life without her and expect she will out live us. Our daughters now are deciding who will receive Gabby when we are gone. Just love that little birdy girl!


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## bioteach (Nov 13, 2010)

We had a male cocker for over 25 years - a typical gray once. He was quite the talker and his favorite phrase was "I'm a stupid birdieeeeeee"! (My husband's sense of humor.....). 

When he passed on we bought a Rainbow Conure. The screeching was so intense that our Golden ran for cover. We found a great home for the bird and kept the dog.

Now that we travel to our mountain cabin on the weekends a bird is impractical - we just can't do it justice. Nugget, the GR loves to ride in the car and enjoys the mountains (especially in the 118 degree days of summer), but I still miss our little feathered friend.


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## Sosoprano (Apr 27, 2011)

Sunny is beautiful! I’ve always thought that in birds that don’t exhibit sexual differences (I forget the right name for that--dimorphic?), a DNA test was the only way to tell who’s who.

We have a male Green Cheek Conure and a female Cape parrot. Boswell’s been gone for two years, but they still try to call him in from the yard!


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## kwhit (Apr 7, 2008)

You can still sex a Lutino cockatiel by the feather barring. Sometimes it depends on their coloring, if they're really pale it can be difficult. You have to hold them, or a single tail feather, up to a light and you should be able to see the barring if it's a girl. Also females have yellow spots under their wings, males don't.

Again, if the bird's really light color it hard to tell, but your bird seems to have a lot of color. They only Lutinos that I haven't been able to sex are the Pearls. Even the males will keep their barring after several molts. 

Females will whistle but hardly any will talk, (usually). Males are generally the talkers. 

Sunny's beautiful, btw.


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## Burd (Aug 11, 2011)

Ladybird can say "I love you", wolf whistle, whistle "uh-oh", and is housebroke. : I never thought a bird could be housebroke! XD She goes to her cage when she has to go.


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## LuckyPenny924 (Dec 1, 2011)

thanks all for the replies. I will take a closer look at the tail barring. 

One thing about Sunny..love to chirp, whistle but not talk. or even whistle tunes...Just never picked them up. We tried for so long to get Sunny to learn things but we gave up and are happy that he (?) is usually pretty quiet. tells us when his food is low by loud squawking, lets us know if someone is coming to the door and after a month of having our golden puppy penny (3 months on the 25th) he is out and about the house she is more afraid of the bird than he is her.


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## Burd (Aug 11, 2011)

LuckyPenny924 said:


> thanks all for the replies. I will take a closer look at the tail barring.
> 
> One thing about Sunny..love to chirp, whistle but not talk. or even whistle tunes...Just never picked them up. We tried for so long to get Sunny to learn things but we gave up and are happy that he (?) is usually pretty quiet. tells us when his food is low by loud squawking, lets us know if someone is coming to the door and after a month of having our golden puppy penny (3 months on the 25th) he is out and about the house she is more afraid of the bird than he is her.


LOL!XD Ladybird does that too!  I mean letting me know when her food is low by throwing seeds at me XD, and she whistles like an alarm when someone comes to the door.


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## geenz (Aug 3, 2011)

I have 6 cockatiels 

Spike - Male pearl
Fawkes - Female whiteface cinnamon pied
Jesse - Female cinnamon pearl pied
Sarge - Female pied
Pablo - baby Male pied
Alvin - baby Male normal grey

Murphy and Alvin are best buds, its so cute. When Murphy sits near the cage Alvin comes running down to sit by him and sometimes sings to him


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