What am I...male or female??

I have a young cockatiel that I raised from 3 weeks of age myself.Num Num was born in mid May, so it's now 5 months old. It has the barring on the underpart of the tail and wings. he/she does the sexy whistle,sings and has been starting to talk as of last month....saying 'watcha doin?' I don't know if he's a he, or a she. Mom is a lutino split to cinnamon, and dad is a Lutino pied. He talks like his dad,has manerisms like his dad as well, which makes me think that he is a male, but as I understand it, males do not have any barring on their tail or wings...which Num Num has. I've had breeders tell me they have had females who talk and sing. This is why I'm confused...any suggestions?

Females can't be split cinnamon. Either they are visual cinnamons or they don't carry the gene.

That chick is a cinnamon pied.


Do you have photos of the parents?

here they are, the mother 'Sundance' is lutino with very light cinnamon colouring on her outer feathers....so what would she be?

It's a male. Especially if he is talking & vocal. Congratulations.

Used to breed 100's of Cockatiels. Had those colors as well. Cute little birds.

The breeding male would have to be split cin to produce a cin male chick.

Male is a pied split cinnamon. Can't tell if he carries the pearl gene or not. I only question due to the area around his shoulders.

The hen, can you get us any photos of her eyes without flash and in as much natural light as possible?

When she molts out her flight feathers, do they always grow back in the dusty brown color?



I'm thinking the hen is a lutino pied, although I am not convinced on her being cinnamon. If she is cinnamon, then there is no way to visually sex the chick based on the parents mutations. Any way to get some better photos of her after she's had a bath and has dried off?

I also question whether or not she's a lutino... she might be a cinnamon fallow, in which case, you still can't sex the cinnamon chicks! But this would account for her colors.


The only way to determine for sure what her mutation is, without knowing her genetics, is to produce more chicks from the pair, then pair the males up to females. If she's lutino, then all males will be split lutino and have a chance of throwing female lutino offspring. If she's cinnamon fallow, then some males will be split cinnamon and others will be split cinnamon fallow... aka, at least some of her male offspring wont be able to produce chicks like her.

Hens can be cinnamon lutino's which this looks like & the male looks like a grey pied/ cinnamon. What we call in Australia Reverse light pied. If he is a multi split then you are in for a surprise with each nest. Your pair should produce some beautiful mutations. Good luck with your breeding. The pied in both parent birds will bring out intense yellow in their offspring.

I was thinking cinnamon lutino.... but I didn't think the colors or the eyes looked right for the mutation. The photos I saw of cinnamon lutinos had a grey wash, not brown.... yet the photos of a cinnamon fallow looked near identical.

I've posted a picture of their off spring. Num Num was the first chick that she had, the other one died, a day after it was born.

the second clutch: she had produced 2 lutinos, and the third baby is identical looking to Num Num, (cinnamon pied)

1st clutch - cinnamon pied-Num Num(probable male) (pic 3)-his tail is very ratty and is in terrible condition when the picture was taken, but now has his new tail feathers and is beautiful.

2nd clutch:
baby 1 - Lutino
baby 2- Lutino
baby 3- Cinnamon Pied

the mother is a very very pale yellow,and has red eyes, which has been passed on to the two baby lutinos. both have very calm personalities like their mother, the cinnamon pieds have the exact same personality as their father Dexter,with dark eyes, btw, Dexter is more gray in colour, the baby cinnamons are more dusky brown.

Sounds like the male is also split lutino then...

So... Father would probably be a pied split cinnamon and lutino.

Mother possible lutino pied (insert other mutation) or some other mutation....


Can you tell if the lutino chicks have spots/stripes on their wings and tail feathers? Might help to use a black light. This should help confirm whether or not the hen is pied or split pied. Also, if we knew what sex the lutino chicks are, we could then confirm that the hen is in fact a lutino. It might take more than 2 clutches to be sure of this... if she's lutino, then you can get lutino males. If she's not lutino, then all lutino offspring are females.

The lutino offspring do not look like the hen, and she can only pass on her red eyes/coloring to male offspring, if she is indeed lutino.

crimson said:

I have a young cockatiel that I raised from 3 weeks of age myself.Num Num was born in mid May, so it's now 5 months old. It has the barring on the underpart of the tail and wings. he/she does the sexy whistle,sings and has been starting to talk as of last month....saying 'watcha doin?' I don't know if he's a he, or a she. Mom is a lutino split to cinnamon, and dad is a Lutino pied. He talks like his dad,has manerisms like his dad as well, which makes me think that he is a male, but as I understand it, males do not have any barring on their tail or wings...which Num Num has. I've had breeders tell me they have had females who talk and sing. This is why I'm confused...any suggestions?

Click to expand...

This may help you identify your birds better.

http://www.neitokakadut.com/index.php?page=colors-and-genetics