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Post by sam01 on Jun 1, 2011 13:25:07 GMT 10
Good afternoon all, I only joined as a member today, but have been reading through the forum for the past 2 days to try and find an answer to my questions and didnt want to hassle anyone if my questions had already been asked LOL. I have 2 Cockatiels which I believe to be Pearl Pied and a Cinnamon Pied. A friend was moving interstate with work so we kindly adopted them from her. We are unsure of the sexes, although going by different things I have read I believe the Cinnamon pied tiel is the male and the pearl pied the female. Our male whistles away quite happily and is doing so whilst I am typing this. Unfortunately we have noticed the male has been preening the back of the females neck and has removed all the feathers, she does not seem overly worried about it and appears to even encourage this, so I am not sure if this is a mating ritual or similar. I dont believe that the tiels are bored as they have a number of things in their cage to amuse them along with fresh leaves etc changed each day . Hoping someone can help me and guide me in the right direction. Thanks in anticipation this is the bird I believe to be the female with the feathers missing  Uploaded with ImageShack.usAnd our male  Uploaded with ImageShack.us |
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Post by avinet on Jun 1, 2011 23:25:06 GMT 10
Good afternoon all, I only joined as a member today, but have been reading through the forum for the past 2 days to try and find an answer to my questions and didnt want to hassle anyone if my questions had already been asked LOL. I have 2 Cockatiels which I believe to be Pearl Pied and a Cinnamon Pied. A friend was moving interstate with work so we kindly adopted them from her. We are unsure of the sexes, although going by different things I have read I believe the Cinnamon pied tiel is the male and the pearl pied the female. Hi and welcome. You have the colours and sex of your two cockatiels right - a cinnamon pied male and a pearl pied female. If they breed you will get cinnamon pied daughters and grey pied sons - a nice pairing since the sex of the babies is known as soon as they feather up in the nest. Plucking by the male on the back of the head of the female is quite common in cockatiel pairs. Why they do it I have no idea, I have several pairs and in probably half there is similar plucking taking place. Very annoying, and I have never found a way to stop it. That it seems impossible to stop is bad enough but worse, after a while the feathers never grow back. Eventually the feather follicle gets so damaged from the constant plucking that it dies and no longer can produce a feather. I have an 18 year old female cockatiel which has a permanently bald area on the back of her neck - even though the male that was doing it disappeared from her life around 8 years ago. One thing I have noticed is that hand raised cockatiel males are more likely to pluck their mate than females. Sorry I can't suggest how to stop it - I have never found a way but I'm always open to new ideas if anyone has one  cheers. Mike |
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gypsy
Bronze Member
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Post by gypsy on Jun 3, 2011 18:06:57 GMT 10
Hi and welcome to the forum I love teils - I have 2 that are spoilt rotten. Do they have 'chewing' toys? mine love ripping to bits shredder strips and chewing on rafia/cane fans/baskets etc also preening themselves on leather/soft cotton rope hanging toys. Perhaps keeping his beak busy with other things may stop him being so obsessed? |
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Post by twr on Jun 9, 2011 13:37:01 GMT 10
Hi Sam sorry I don't have advice on the teils and plucking issue, but I did want to welcome you to the forum |
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Post by owszat on Apr 5, 2013 12:29:33 GMT 10
Just ploughing through lots of posts in this forum. Being new I find it very interesting and educational. Mr Mike, I see that you wrote this quote Good afternoon all, I only joined as a member today, but have been reading through the forum for the past 2 days to try and find an answer to my questions and didnt want to hassle anyone if my questions had already been asked LOL. I have 2 Cockatiels which I believe to be Pearl Pied and a Cinnamon Pied. A friend was moving interstate with work so we kindly adopted them from her. We are unsure of the sexes, although going by different things I have read I believe the Cinnamon pied tiel is the male and the pearl pied the female. Hi and welcome. You have the colours and sex of your two cockatiels right - a cinnamon pied male and a pearl pied female. If they breed you will get cinnamon pied daughters and grey pied sons - a nice pairing since the sex of the babies is known as soon as they feather up in the nest. What I would like to ask is, can you tell what the mutation of the offspring will be from most parents? If so, is there a rule that you follow to predict the new born? Not sure if you will get to see this here, but I'll give it a go anyway. Regards |
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Post by avinet on Apr 5, 2013 21:54:23 GMT 10
What I would like to ask is, can you tell what the mutation of the offspring will be from most parents? If so, is there a rule that you follow to predict the new born? Not sure if you will get to see this here, but I'll give it a go anyway. Regards The genetics of mutation inheritance follow very well defined rules, at least for all the commonly found mutations. So following these rules it is possible to predict accurately what colour mutations any combination of parents will produce. The three main types of genes are recessive, dominant and sex-linked and it is knowing which of these three types a particular mutation follows that predictions of the breeding outcomes can be worked out.. The only problem comes when the genetic history of a bird is unknown. Sometimes a parent may be carrying genes for a mutation but that mutation isn't visible on the bird. However that gene may still be passed on to any offspring and appear visibly in that offspring. Actually the other main problem is accurately recognising what mutation is present in a particular bird - many breeders have a poor knowledge of the genetics of their birds as do many shops, and therefore many owners. There is a program available that will give you the likely results for just about any mutation in any species of parrot - Gencalc at www.gencalc.com/ - however to use it properly you do need a good understanding of basic genetics. The results from any breeding combination can also be predicted on a sheet of paper using a method called Punnet Square analysis. cheers, Mike |
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Post by owszat on Apr 7, 2013 14:54:27 GMT 10
Thank you Mike for your great information here. I will go and check out the site. Basically then, with a sound knowledge of the background of your cockatiels you can try and mate certain mutations to breed a specific type...
Not sure I would want to do that, I like to let them do their own thing and be happy.
Regards
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Post by greyeagle1 on May 21, 2013 13:28:47 GMT 10
Just curious...does it take both a male cinnamon white face pearled and a female white face pearled female in order to produce offspring that are this same color variation?
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Post by avinet on May 22, 2013 17:14:48 GMT 10
Just curious...does it take both a male cinnamon white face pearled and a female white face pearled female in order to produce offspring that are this same color variation? A cinnamon W/F pearl male with a grey W/F pearl female would produce the following babies:- All males will be grey W/F pearl, split to cinamon all females will be cinnamon W/F pearl You would therefore be able to sex the babies in the nest - greys are male, cinnamon are female. White-face is a recessive gene, meaning both parents have to carry the gene either visually or as splits for any of their babies to be white-face. Both pearl and cinnamon are sex-linked, meaning that if both sons and daughters are to visually show the mutation then both parents have to carry that mutation, and being sex-linked the mother will visually be that mutation - females cannot be split to a sex-linked gene, if they carry the gene then they will visually show the gene. The father will pass the cinnamon gene to all his offspring, but since the mother does not carry the cinnamon gene then all his sons will be split to cinnamon but not show the colour (their mother would have to be cinnamon for that to happen) and his daughters also inherit a cinnamon gene but being a sex linked gene they have to show the colour. It is actually a very nice breeding combination - pearl W/F are very attractive birds, and it has the advantage that sexing the babies is immediate and accurate. cheers, Mike |
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Post by greyeagle1 on May 26, 2013 8:36:00 GMT 10
Thanks, Mike. It is so interesting how they turn out some times. I recently looked in a cockatiel breeding book and saw what looked like a solid yellow cockatiel with the wings being a cinnamon grey. Nature is full of surprises!
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Post by greyeagle1 on May 26, 2013 22:43:30 GMT 10
Just one question...can you explain what is mean by split. I apologize for not being knowledgeable on breeding terms.
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Post by zena on May 27, 2013 9:09:59 GMT 10
Split is when a bird is/shows on colour but is masking another- such as a pair of budgies; they may both be green but split for blue-- so they will have some blue babies...
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Post by avinet on May 27, 2013 11:32:54 GMT 10
Split is when a bird is/shows on colour but is masking another- such as a pair of budgies; they may both be green but split for blue-- so they will have some blue babies... That's right, a bird can be one colour but carry the genes for other colours. A cockatiel for instance can look like a normal grey wild type, but carry a gene for pied or white face. The presence of that gene will only be revealed when a suitable mating occurs with another bird either split for those genes or visually showing the mutation. A human equivalent is red hair. The gene for red hair in humans is a recessive gene so to have a red haired baby both parents have to carry that gene, even though their hair might be blonde or black. cheers, Mike |
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Post by greyeagle1 on May 27, 2013 12:52:33 GMT 10
Thanks, again. This helps. I didn't know that grey cockatiels could hide another color variation in their line and produce a chick that would look nothing like the original parent.
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Post by greyeagle1 on May 27, 2013 14:02:48 GMT 10
One more question: What color is the emerald mutation? Can you show me a picture?
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Post by avinet on May 28, 2013 12:00:15 GMT 10
Emerald is a very misleading name - it implies a green colour to a cockatiel which is an impossibility. Cockatiels are simply unable to produce any of the pigments necessary to get green feathers. What is called an Emerald is simply a light grey bird due to a reduction in the amount of melanin (the pigment that produces a grey colour) in the feathers. In a bird which also has a strong yellow background colour to the body, this reduction in the amount of grey means that the yellow begins to show and to some eyes the combination of grey and yello produces a greenish tinge. I have to say that my eyes, which have been tested and have perfect colour vision, see no green when seeing these birds live in good light. Emerald is a term used mostly in the USA, while in Australia, Olive is used for a very similar appearing bird. The two names appear to reflect two slighly different mutations, that give the same overall appearance. The Emerald mutation appears to also make the flesh on the feet paler in colour, meaning the melanin is reduced in the feet at well as in the feathers, while the Australian Olive has normal coloured feet, indicating that melanin is being produced normally but is not being mobilized into the feathers. A description and photos can be seen for the USA Emerald at www.justcockatiels.net/emerald.html and for the Australian Olive at members.optusnet.com.au/~geoffwatts1/Olive_Cockatiels.htmlA note about photos - they can easily be misleading and a green tinge can be introduced as an artifact by the camera, the computer screen, or by processing. The only way to really judge the colour of these birds is by seeing them in the flesh, alive and flying in a naturally lit aviary. cheers, Mike |
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Post by greyeagle1 on May 31, 2013 11:38:22 GMT 10
Thank you so much for the information. I just obtained a new cockatiel that someone had to give up and I thought that she might be an emerald. Her plumage is a very pale shade of grey (almost silver) and the rest of her body is a pale shade of yellow. But she has no white areas on her body so I don't think she is a pied tiel. Her toenails are flesh color and so is her beak. Her eyes are black. Could she by chance be a split white face silver pearl? As soon as I get my camera I will have to post a pic of her. She is just beautiful.
There is just one lingering problem....I have no idea what I should name her. Do you have any suggestions?
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Post by Nymphicus on May 31, 2013 13:47:48 GMT 10
A photo would be a big help in coming up with a suitable name...can you post one?
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Post by greyeagle1 on Jun 1, 2013 11:34:38 GMT 10
As soon as I get my camera, I will be posting her picture on here, since It's hard to describe the coloring she has. |
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Post by greyeagle1 on Jun 4, 2013 6:18:57 GMT 10
Just thought of the perfect name for her! I decided to call her Sunkist.
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