no...do you have a picture so we can see what it is like?

 

Jess...what you are describing would look similar to like a hound dogs eyes?

I could not find a side veiw pix...but do you mean like the pix below? If so, this could be caused by line-breeding for some traits such as large eyes.

 

Yep I think it looks like that. The first one to have it was Billy, I know he's not from related parents because I bred him myself, the other one who has this is one Billys offspring so it must be some sort of genetic trait. He's not like it now though, hopefully thr youngster eyes will sort themselves out as well.

 

, the other one who has this is one Billys offspring so it must be some sort of genetic trait.
---------------------------------------------

Yes, it is a recessive genetic trait. Since this is in this line, care has to be taken to pair any suspect birds with mates that have smaller eyes. Pairing with large eyed birds will cause this fault to pop up more, and become recessive in future generations.

My little Big Eyes grandmother had the large droopy eyes. He was 1 out of 6 that showed this genetic fault.

 

How does it right itself? All I noticed over time was that he became normal,you wouldn't even know Billy had previously had hound dog eyes, he got the nickname Billy big eyes though. He was the only one out of a clutch of 4 to hatch, he was a little christmas present as he hatched on christmas day.

 

With some birds...they grow into their eyes and never have a problem with them, and they look normal by the time they are weaned.

If a genetic fault they will always have the hounddog eyes and if do they become sensative to dust, dander and wind up with chronic eye inflamations.

 

I'll watch out for that with this young one, hopefully she'll grow into her eyes. I've got air filters so hopefully it won't be an issue.

 

Mine has massive eyes to I think many people say he does

 

but it makes him cute.... what's so wrong with cockatiels with big eyes? tsuka has bigger eyes than dally but theyre not overly big


well eye infections true.... sorry didnt read that till now

 

I THINK BIG EYES RULE! Apart from the bad things but come on makes them look cute ... doesn't it!

 

i think charlie's honestly the cutest tiel ive ever seen.

 

Cockatiel love...the eyes on your bird are perfect. What some breeders, have done was breed for larger eye. What happens is the lower eyelidwill doop and hang down exposing some of the eye tissue. Once bred into a line it can then become recessive and be considered a genetic fault.

 

This is interesting because neither of Billys parents have hound dog eyes and Billy eyes have righted themseleves, they are quite large/round but not hound dog. In contrast I have a cockatiel I took on a couple of years ago that has small eyes, almost almond shaped.

 

Since it is a recessive gene, the only way that the parents would be 'symptomatic' is if they had two copies of the recessive gene. So basically, genetically, the parents could be like this:

Hen: Normal Eyes x hound dog
Cock: Normal Eyes x hound dog

So, since they only have one copy of the gene, the dominant 'normal' eye overcomes the recessive hound.

Now, the baby, if he has hound dog eyes, would look like this:
Baby: hound x hound

It would have NO instance of the dominant normal eye which means that to breed it out of the line, you would need to introduce 'teils that have normal eyes. It's possible that you could end up keeping the trait within the line, by inadvertently breeding birds with a single copy of the recessive gene. However, eventually, it should breed itself out as long as you were to choose birds with eyes that appear on the small side therefore possibly avoiding the chance of having a copy of the recessive gene.

It's been a while since I did anything with genetics (used to breed rats), but I know that the basic concepts are the same, and would presume that the way to breed out the undesired trait would be the same as well.

 

Oh, well I am glad Charlie won't get allergies and stuff but thanks DallyTsuka I think your tiels are cute to

 

theres still something adorabler about charlie. i honestly think hes the cutest one. if i ever have another tiel, i hope they have a face just like his! i want another female one day. 2 males i think may be too noisy for an appartment

 

hehe, Charlie is male, he doesn't make a sound. He is to young to whistle yet but he does try I love females to they are shy and cute like my budgie Talola, I love talola

 

lol just you wait **** start whistling soon!

 

Do all boys whistle? is it their court or do some not whistle because Charlie has not made one whistling sound yet? how old when they start? :S

 

It all depends on the bird when they start...we got Fuzzy at four months old and for about two months thought he was a girl because he didn't make a sound, then one day he started whistling and of course he eventually molted out his pearls ::sigh::

 

Question about big eyes

Hello,

We just purchased our second cockatiel. We brought our first one, Spike, into the pet store she was purchased from for a trim and fell in love with a little cockatiel sitting in the cage by himself. The store worker told me he has big eyes, and when I saw him I was shocked how big they were. He is SO cute he ended up coming home with us. We were planning to get a second cockatiel anyway so it worked out well.

Anyway, now that I have a closer look at his eyes I'm realizing it's not just the eye that's big, its the lid around it. I did some searching on the internet and I found this wonderful information from SR Tiels and I'm a little concerened. I'm posting some pics so you can see his eyes. I'm a little upset with the pet store, I specifically asked if the eyes were a problem or just that the bird has big eyes and she said it wasn't a problem, just big eyes. He has already spent the night with us so I hate the idea of bringing him back now but if this is a serious genetic defect that will lead to problems I'm not sure if we should keep him.

What do you think? Thanks for reading.

 

He should be fine. The big eyes are an inherited thing.

OK...since he has big eyes his eyes will be more sensitive to dust and air bourne irratants. When he starts molting you can very lightly mist him, which will cut down on flyinf dander as he preens and grooms. Also before you change the cage tray lightly mist it, so that any dander in the tray does not get in the air. If you smoke do it outside. If you cover the cage, have it partially open to encourage air flow, especially when he is molt. If you vacumn in the room, move his cage to another room while doing this because the vent of the vacumn can put fine dust in the air which can irratate the eyes.

Aside from that he should be a healthy bird

 

Once again thank you for the great info. I'm already attached to him anyway!

 

Aww puppy eyes look

 

Yep the same sort of eyes as my houndog. Theydo look extra cute, it may sort itself, Billy big eyes as I called him looks normal now.

 

Thanks Lperry and Jess, he is the cutest thing! The big eyes almost make him look cartoonish.

 

tsuka's eyes are like that too, but only one is i think. its an old scar. his former cagemates in his old home got at his eye before we got him so hes missing a small part of his lower eyelid on his right eye. he also has a bit of scar tissue on the upper lid.

 

So, since they only have one copy of the gene, the dominant 'normal' eye overcomes the recessive hound.
---------------------------------

Sorry...I tend to disagree. From personal exoperience I have learned from working with alot of tiels, all you need is 1 bird with this fault for it to pop up. And it does go recessive and is a royal B**** to work out of a line.

 

You're correct, what I meant was that the pair simply wouldn't have the hound eyed appearance. They could pass it along to their progeny since they each have a single copy of the gene, but they themselves would have normal eyes.

Just like in humans where blue eyes are a recessive gene so you can have two parents with brown eyes, but they produce a child with blue eyes because somewhere back there was someone on each side of the family that carried the recessive blue eyes, or had blue eyes.

For example, you could pair a Normal x hound to a Normal x Normal and there would be no chance of visual hound eyes, but some of the chicks could/would carry the recessive gene and just keep passing it along.

We have something similar in rats where they have the appearance of being 'bug eyed'. It's recessive to normal eyes, and just like 'teils can take forever to breed out simply because it's hard to track who carries the recessive since they won't show the characteristic unless they have two copies of the recessive gene. So even though you're breeding what appears to be two normals together, you could in fact be passing the bug/hound eyed trait without knowing it.

I don't know if that makes any sense. When it comes to genetics I tend to word things a bit jumbled.