DNA <span title="Cockatiel....................">Cockatiel...................</span>

Question

Hi,

I am going to get my Cockatiel DNA tested by sending a few of his chest feathers using AvianBiotech.com. I thought at first that a tail feather may do but they said they need a few fresh chest feathers, I wanted to know how I would get these as plucking him would obviously really hurt and I wouldn't do that. I would just wait but not many chest feathers really fall out.

What would be the safest, quickest and most comfortable for my cockatiel to remove his chest feathers?

Thank you as always, I appreciate your help.

Mark

Answer 1

First of all you have no NEED to do that period. Cockatiels are able to be sexed without any kind of DNA testing. A female will only tweet and have stripes on her tail  and usually a grey face. Only a MALE will whistle tunes and say words. Usually a male will have solid colored tail feathers. A male will also have no grey on his face either, usually having a yellow head and face in most grey bred birds. But if your male is a pied with grey on his face then he is a dirty face pied, but will whistle tunes and talk. Only the white face mutation will have NO ORANGE cheek patches. And a white face female will be all grey with no orange patches on her cheeks.