Wolf whistle

Question
Hi there,
its just curiosity on my part. i love them just the same. i do not want to breed and will be taking the neccesary precautions to avoid it. i was just wondering because joon with her little girly name, hahaha might be a boy. even if she is a he, lol shell still be my little joon-bug! i just find them so very facisnating and find myself analyzing all their little ways and being so happy and amused to do so. with her starting to mimic the wolf whistle it just got me to wondering. i understand about big email attachments. i actually find the yahoo photo attach quite handy, lets you get small photos and they link to bigger ones wehn you click on them. i always use those.
Have a gr8 night and thanks sooo much!Amanda

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Followup To
Question -
Hi there,
Tobey, the 9 month old, is a grey male. Benny and Joon (12 weeks old) are pearls, but their father was a white face i believe. the siodes and back of their heads are almost snow white, more so on benny.
Many is a cinnamon pearl 10 weeks old. she chirps and does a single contact call as they all do. tobey whistles, the wolf, part of the fl;instones and a small piece of andy griffith. lol benny and joon have just in the last week been doing alot of vocalizations and i can hear the wolf whistle from joon, not nearly as loud as tobey, but you can tell what it is, and when you do it,she does it back. :>) id send pictures to show them to you, but i dont have a way to attach them to this response.
Amanda

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Followup To
Question -
Good morning!
i kept my promise and left you alone the rest of yesterday, and ill limit to 1 questin today! you gave such gr8 info yesterday, i appreciate the time you took. my question is this. there is so much debate on the vocal stylings of females. my oldest male tobey whistles up a storm, the 2 brother/sister 12 weeks old teils, benny and joon have started chiming right in and whisteling. well last night joon, sho i believed was a girl started wolf whistleing....mandy who i am alomost positive is female, makes the contact call and little noices nut doesnt whistle. also joon stretches her wings up tall and benny does, just not as often and runs aruond in circles. i know indivuduals vary,but it seems to me joon might  be a male also?
Amanda
Answer -
Hi again, Amanda.  

I've never heard a female tiel do anything other than chirp (even fully grown adult females).  A lot of males don't start whistling, etc., until they are at least 6-months old.  Therefore, I think it's too early yet for at least 2 of your tiels (the 12-week olds) to tell male from female.  I think you stated your other 2 tiels are 9 and 10 months old?  In addition, visual sexing, even as adults, can be difficult depending on their phenotype (color mutation).  Parrots molt twice their first year:  first time at about 6-7 months then again at about 12 months of age.  Tiels don't have their adult coloration until after the second molt.  In trying to determine sex visually with a degree of accuracy and if the birds are other than normal greys, I like to take all things into consideration and then make a determination versus trying to make a determination based on vocalization only.  

What phenotype (colors) are your tiels?  Are they normal greys, pearls, cinnamons, pieds, lutinos, white/yellow faces, etc., or combinations of these?  Normally, it's easier (and often more accurate) to determine sex based on coloration and vocalization, unless your tiels are multiple combinations of some of the color mutations...sometimes this can get pretty complicated when dealing with pearly pieds, cinnamon pearls, etc.

Chrys    
Answer -
Hi!

The 9-month old...pretty easy to have nearly 100% accuracy at this age if bird is a normal grey.

The 12-week olds are a different story!  The combo of white face (white face grey or pearl or other?) and grey or pearl can make visual sexing difficult, especially at this age.  They haven't even molted the first time yet and their coloration can change.  Pearls sometimes become all grey after a molt or two, but then, in this case if white face whatever is involved, you eliminate 1 sexing indicator...orange face spot (how bright it is or not).

Then the cinnamon pearl who is only 10 weeks old...not old enough yet I'm afraid, especially with that phenotype.  

I'll have to check my reference material to be sure, but I think I recall pearls being female only.

I recommend you wait until the 3 youngest tiels go through at least the 1st molt at 6/7 months of age before you try to determine sex...older would be better for accuracy.  Is there a particular reason you need to know their sexes now or are you just curious?  If you're thinking about pairing these up and breeding them, you have plenty of time, as the females should be at least 18 months old before breeding them.  Males (as well as females) can produce babies when they are younger than this, but if you want your females to live a long, happy life and produce quality babies, don't breed them before 18 months.

My ISPs can't handle large attachments or I'd give you my home E-Mail addy for pics.  I used to genetically sex tiels, but I'd have to know the coloration of the moms and dads of your babies in order to be able to do this.  If the coloration of the parents are known, you can figure out, with high probability, the sex of the babies and what color mutation they can be.

When visually sexing, there are many factors to take into consideration.  You take all into consideration and make a guess as best you can.  Some are brightness of orange face spot, overall coloration (at 1 yr of age), coloration/sex of parents (i.e., was mom grey), crest height, size and stature, underside tail feather color/pattern, amount of yellow on lutinos, behavior, etc.  

Chrys  

Answer
I also like cockatiels.  I have about 30 in a huge flight cage.  I've bred them over the years, but some of my breeders are getting up in age and I've retired some.  Tiels do lots of silly things, which makes them very interesting to keep as pets/companions.  They are actually a subspecies of the cockatoo.

Good luck.  I'm always here if you need information or help.

Chrys