[wmjmccullough]

I have a few questions. I have a baby pied that hatched September 15. He/she has been making the baby noises pretty consistently (gravely noises, head down, chirping, grooming our hair). I assume this is pretty normal for a handfed, but it has been constant when she's out of the cage. Is this just noises of content, is she begging for food, or is she agitated? I assumed she was content or begging for food, but it's constant.

Is it too early to determine sex by the amount of chirping/whistling she is doing? I read that pieds you can sometime tell the sex by the feathers under the tail. If there are stripes, it's a female. Is that true, and at what age is that identifiable? There are some stripes at the base of her tail right now.

I had her on my shoulder and she was rubbing her tail back and forth on me. I assume this was masturbation, but isn't two months old too young for those behaviors?? Thanks in advance!

 

[artistchan]

All cockatiels appear female until their first molt at about 6 months.
You can tell if your cockatiel is male sooner than a female with behaviour. I think it was about 4 months when my youngest male started doing heart wings (a male only trait). Males are also more vocal and sing, but sometimes you can have a vocal female. Females won't show heartwings so if none of that by 12 months and possibly some hormonal behaviour such as bending over and chittering, you have a female. If you are also seeing the stripes at 12 months, that's also a good sign of female. (Can be a bit tricky with pied as depends on the colour coverage and that)

The most concrete way you could tell this early is DNA sexing by an avian vet.

The feeding noises will stop at some point. I have a hand-reared female. She was fully weaned but still begged for several weeks, mainly when getting egg food ready.