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Post by Jenny P on Jun 22, 2010 16:40:07 GMT -5
Is it possible for a female cockatiel to exhibit male mating behaviors?
We got a cockatiel a few months ago from a breeder. We were told that the cockatiel was a female, and she has the physical characteristics of a female (she's a normal grey with a grey face, dull orange cheeks, spots under the wings). She's about nine or ten months old. She likes to whistle and sing, which I thought was unusual for a female. She's also started tapping her beak on surfaces around the cage, which seemed even more unusual.
This evening, we caught our two "females" mating in the bottom of their cage, with our new cockatiel in the male position. So, either she's transgender, or our female is actually a male. Has anyone had experience either with females exhibiting male characteristics, or misidentified females?
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Post by Talk About Tiels Admin on Jun 25, 2010 8:23:47 GMT -5
Its not unheard of but it sure looks as if you have a male! The singing and carrying on really is what gives it away! What colors are they?
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Post by jpalbritton49 on Jun 25, 2010 18:47:01 GMT -5
I think your female is actually a male, based on the body language and actions. I think the bird may be younger than you were told and is going thru it's first real molt and starting to talk, look for the head coloring to start changing that will be a dead give away.
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Post by Jenny P on Jun 27, 2010 13:55:48 GMT -5
Both birds are grey with grey faces and light orange cheek patches and the barring on the tails. One we know is a female for sure, since she used to nest and laid several clutches of eggs when she was in a cage by herself. We did pull out a couple pictures of the newer cockatiel from when we first got her, and it definitely looks like she's getting more yellow in the face, so I think you're right that she / he may not be as old as the breeder indicated.
I'm definitely irritated. I would have expected a breeder to have known better, especially since we made clear that we wanted a female to keep with our existing female to try and curtail some of her egg laying. (It seemed to work in the past, before her previous female cage mate passed away.) In the last couple of weeks, she has laid seven eggs in the corner of the cage, but I don't think they'll hatch as she's not actually nesting on them. I think we'll have to buy another cage and separate them, at least if this keeps up.
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Post by Talk About Tiels Admin on Jun 28, 2010 11:20:36 GMT -5
Keep us informed on the amount of eggs she's laying. I think a separate cage where they can get some out time is optimal. Then they can still socialize when you are watching them.
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Post by LJ on Jul 1, 2010 7:35:47 GMT -5
You may very well have a male that had a Pearl mother. My pearl female and grey male mated and one of their babies was a male that looked like a female grey for quite some time. He had very light yellow tones on his face. After about 6 months they became a little more prominent but not as yellow as his father.
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Post by jperkins on Jul 8, 2010 23:02:21 GMT -5
I think the main thing we need to keep in mind is the age of the bird. It can sometimes take a year or more for a normal cock to fully feather into his nice yellow face. Based on the behaviors you mentioned, I think you have a cockbird. Beak banging and whistling are classic signs of a male. Like Leslie said though, it's not unheard of for a hen to do some of the same things as a male. Although it is very rare for a hen to do all of these classic male behaviors at one. Be sure to let us know what ya think! GOOD LUCK!  |
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