How can I tell if my young cockateils are male or female?

Answer 1

cockatiel sexing - is my cockatiel male or female ?

With young cockatiels the male and female look the same so it is difficult to decipher their sex until they have been through their first molt at around six to nine months of age. Only then will the adult coloring show.

Normal gray cockatiels are easily sexed once the adult plumage is through. You will notice that the coloring is more defined with the male having a bright yellow face, whereas the female has a gray face with traces of pale yellow. The male's body is a dark gray but the female's appears duller with almost a brown tint to the gray. Also, until their first molt both sexes have barring patterns on the underside of their tail feathers. After the molt the male's tail feathers will be a solid gray color with no barring, but the female's will remain patterned.

The above is easily applied for normal gray cockatiels but other color varieties such as albinos, cinnamons, lutinos, pearls and pieds are more difficult to sex.

In the meantime, use the general guide below to assist with the sexing of other varieties:

males have a great vocal ability and whistle a lot females generally are fairly quiet males whistle and call, whereas females tend to screech females are often more likely to hiss and bite where applicable, males have slightly darker or brighter colorings
on the face and orange cheek patches any hint of barring, markings or spots on the underside of the tail
feathers or wings when they are spread indicates a female
(you may need to hold your cockatiel up to a bright light in order
to see any markings) males tend to strut around - they lift their wings slightly,
stick their chest out and parade and strut, normally calling at
the same time place a mirror in front of your cockatiel. How does it react?
Normally a male will be fascinated and the mirror should hold his
attention for quite some time while he performs in front of it.
A female tends to lose interest fairly quickly.

Answer 2

You can't unless you are breeding certain pairings of sex-linked colors. If you pair a cinnamon male to a normal female, all the female chicks will be cinnamon and all the males will appear normal and carry the cinnamon gene.

However if you have a clutch full of normal chicks, there is no good way to tell. At about six months or so, the males will begin to sing, but sometimes a female can sing too. The only sure way to tell is to wait for the first moult. When that happens the males will begin to get the yellow on their cheeks and the barred underside of their tail will grow back in solid colored. (This is the olnly way to tell with Lutinos BTW. A Lutino female adult has yellow bars on the underside of her tail. An adult Lutino male's tail is solid white underneath.)

Answer 3

I thought my cockateil was a male... until she layed pink eggs!! So my baby boy was a baby girl. That would be a dirt cheap way of finding out, just wait six months or so to see if it lays eggs. (It's kinda like their way of having a period)

Answer 4

This website helped me:

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

Answer 5

Males have dark orange checks and females have lighter orange checks.

Answer 6

i would take them to a vet...they can tell you

Answer 7

Look for a little pecker! hehe get it?