how do you know a boy from a girl cockatiel?

Question

well i have two orange cheek cockatiel

Answer 1

Look at the color of their faces. If the bird is grey and has orange cheeks, but no yellow on the face it is most likely female. If it is grey with a yellow head and really bright (I mean really bright) orange cheeks, you most likely have a boy. This can also apply to Lutinos or the yellow/white variety. But mutations are harder to sex. Usually cockatiels are easily sexed, making them one of the few species that are sexually dimorphic (you can easily tell by looking at them).

You can also if they will let you gently cup them in your hand and flip them over. If you feel a concave or hollow dip in their under belly, between the belly and their vent (butt) where there seems to be a gap between the bone structure of their pelvis, you have a female. If you don't feel a dip area and feel a narrower bone structure you have a boy.

If this makes you feel dirty or your birds are not tame enough for you to handle take pics of them and ask someone at a pet store who specializes in birds, or take them to a vet.

Don't worry palpating them doesn't make you a "perve", just an owner who cares.

Good luck, email me if you want to send pics I will try my best to tell them apart.
Later,
Tanya

Answer 2

You can tell anybody you want to. lol I think u meant "how". Has the bird molted yet? On cockatiels, you cannot tell what they are until after their first molt. Also, there are so many mutations of the cockatiel now that to tell you any one way would be wrong. So what kind of cockatiel? Normal Grey, Pearl? Latino? White? White face? Pied, if so, what kind? Some you can tell by their face, some by the marks on the bottom of the tail feathers or wings, some by the amount of pearling in them. Use to be, cockatiel meant: Normal Grey, but not anymore. You cannot tell by the color of the feet, the size or the cere. The cere is for Budgies. Sorry guys.

Answer 3

The face markings are an accurate way of telling ... the females will have a dingy face not so bright orange markings and the males will have Bright facial markings which actually the facial ornage patches are the coverings to the birdies little ears...if I remember correctly...lol...been awhile since I lived with my Mom and her Tiels...

Also...if you are couragous enough when they are youngsters take a peek at the under side of the tail...the males will have close together bars and the females will have more of a seperated bar marking...or it could be the other way around, but the facial markings is the definite way to tell.

Answer 4

I have a funny story about how to tell
We were given a cocktail and told it was a boy, so we named it George....
The bird didn't seem to like its name...
But we would say things like "Hey George boy how you doin'?" She would not respond to us...
Then one day I was cleaning its cage, and found an egg in it.....
So we changed its name to Georgina LOL
She liked us better after that...I guess she was letting us know she was a girl LOLOLOL
But all this aside I was told that a boy bird will the brightly colored ones and have a red spot on the cheeks...But this was from the same lady that gave us Georgina.....

Answer 5

I've wondered about this too. I've always taken the word of the man who sold ours to my husband that he is in fact male.

On searching, I found this:
http://www.cockatiels.org/articles/genetics/vsexing.html

Answer 6

Depending on age, sometimes they can be visually sexed. Bars on the tail for a female.


http://www.cockatiels.org/articles/genetics/vsexing.html

Answer 7

the Boy's prefer Scotch with little ice, the Girls like a Bailey's with lots of ice.

Answer 8

One's got a billy, one's got a peggy. That's what I was always told.

Answer 9

The boys will talk to you and the girls will talk about you.

Answer 10

Only they know.