Does anyone know how to tell the difference between a male and female cocktail?

Question

i have 3 cocktail's and i thought i knew,but i got a baby tonight and she is definitely a female,but the bands on what i thought was a female are not nearly as distinct.if anyone has any experience with birds,i would love some feedback.

Answer 1

The best thing to do is take her/him to a vet and they'll do a blood analysis, but that's expensive so look at the face. Boys have their feathers brighter from the face than girls, but you can ever be sure. This one is more accurate, but it's gross. You have to feel under their tail. If your cocktail has 2 things together that your bird is a boy, but if your bird has them apart them a girl cocktail.

*good luck*

-Tyler Petersen

Answer 2

In normal gray Cockatiels adult hens will have bars under their tails whereas males will have solid black under their tails.  Adult hens will have a gray head as well but males will have a yellow head.  All babies and juveniles resemble females until their first or second molt.

You can also look under their wings.  Females have spots running the length of the underside of their wings but males lose this as they mature.

Feeling the pelvic bones is a useful tool but not for babies because the bones are all the same and still developing in babies but females have a larger gap (to allow the egg to pass through) and the ends are rounded while males have a narrow gap and sharper ends where the bones meet.

Depending on the mutation (color) things get a bit tricky when it comes to sexing and the brightness of the cheek patch is not a good indicator of gender.  I have a lutino hen who's cheek patches are brighter than any other bird I have and she's also more vocal.

If you have a lutino, cinnamon or pearl Cockatiel and you know the colors of their parents you can generally determine the gender because these mutations are s*x linked so when you follow the genetics a bit it gets easier (but that's the subject of another conversation)!  

In some of the mutations (like white face lutino) it's next to impossible to tell unless you have a DNA s*x test done.  Avianbiotech charges $20 per bird for DNA s*x results if you really want to know for sure.