Gabe's a girl!

[asterroc]

DNA sexing results came back today on Gabriel. She's female!

As mentioned before, Gabe's a lutino cockatiel, which cannot be visually sexed with complete reliability, though there can be clues. The things that led me to guess so were faint spots on the undersides of flight feathers, faint stripes on undersides of tail feathers, and faint pearling on her back (so she's actually lutino pearled). DNA sexing confirmed my suspicion: it's a girl!

Now I know to keep making sure she doesn't get triggers to lay eggs, and to make sure she gets a calcium block in case she ever does start laying. Her name is remaining Gabriel though - gender of name doesn't make a difference to her, and I find it amusing.

Gratuitous photo!



Doesn't she look all sorts of coy there? You can actually see the pearling in this photo pretty well - it's the yellow splotches on her shoulders.

X-posted to my blog, parrot_lovers, and cockatiels.

Comments

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's how the first vet guessed her age - she said it was like male pattern balding in humans in that it gets bigger with age, but both males and females have it. Here's a photo of her from last summer that shows it. :-P

[weirdlilfaechld.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Diana is about three (I have to guess ages and "assign" hatchdays to my birds too, I only knew Jesse's true age and hatch date, everyone else I guess according to comments from previous owners if possible, changes in weight and the area around the keel [since even healthy cockatiels start to loose muscle there at about 16], coloration of feathers [since geriatric birds and birds with kidney or liver problems will have yellowing or browning in areas that should be white] overall health and how stubborn they are) but has a huge bald spot, and it is all smooth pink skin with no sign of ever being plucked or feathers ever going to grow there, so it is nice to be able to compare hers with another lutino's head. Diana's is about twice the size of Gabe's though, I will see if I can find a picture that isn't of when I first got her when her mate was plucking her and she had a series of bald spots.

Sorry for being long winded again!

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Aren't birds wonderful? I just picked her up to try and see if her bald patch is any bigger than last year, and she pooped on my arm. :-P (Answer: it seems the same to me.)