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How can I tell the age of my cockatiel?

How can you find out a cockatiel's age and gender?

  • We just got this cockatiel today. We're pretty sure it's heavy pied cockatiel, and we want to know how old it is and it's gender so we can name it and maybe put it in with our other cockatiel. We know nothing about this bird, and it might be in hibernation with it's egg laying (if it's a female) so we can't tell by that.(lucky us) Does anyone know how to tell it's age and gender by sight? Thanks!

  • Answer:

    There is no way to be able to visually know a bird's age for certain. Young birds (6 months or less) generally have large, dark eyes with nearly no iris showing and their feet will be rather soft feeling (like human babies). Also, their beaks will quite smooth with little or no peeling or damage. Also, on cockatiels, the youngs ones will not have very noticeable orange cheek patches. If the bird is an adult male it should have very noticeable and bright orange cheek patches and the female will have less noticeable ones, yet more than the youngsters. If you bird is indeed the heavy "pied" coloring, you MIGHT be able to check the underside of its tail for gender, but it is still sometimes difficult with pied birds. The males will usually have a solid color on the underside of the tail feathers and the females have horizontal bars on the underside of their tail feathers BUT, this does not always show on pied birds, or lutinos, albinos or some of the white-faced mutations, and can be more confusing that helpful. I have no idea what you are talking about when you say "hibernation". Bears hibernate but not birds! LOL A female cockatiel should not be continually laying eggs if that is what you are referring to. If she does, she can quickly deplete her body's calcium, become very weak and possibly die from egg binding or other calcium deficiency related injuries. If you have a hen that is doing that, just be aware that there are shots an avian vet can give to a hen if she has become a perpetual egg layer. Hope this helps in your identification.

Wobniar at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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Other answers

you would probably have to take it to an avairy vet. (one who specializes in birds). i have 3 birds of my own. the quaker parrot that i have, when i got him i was told he was 4. now he will be 6 soon. anyways they vet can tell my looking at and feeling the beak. if the beak is still soft on the sides the bird is young. if it has ruff looking stuff on the sides of the beak he may be older in age. one way i can tell if the bird is male or female, is by feeling the bottom of the bird, sort of down by his butt, but on his belly, like his pelvis. you will feel a "v" shape bone. DONT press to hard. just gently. if it feels like a space in between the v, then it is male, if the v is closer together it is female. BUT you should also get a dna test. that will definently tell you a 100% result if its male or female!!! i hope my information was some what resourseful!!! good luck!!!! hope all goes well.

KIM-dobie owner

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