Hello everyone!
I've been an avid reader of these forums for months now, but I just made an account to be able to ask this question! Please let me know if this isn't the appropriate place to post this, I'll move it lickety split.
My cockatiel Rocket hatched on October 21st of 2018. I am beyond in love with him. When he was around two months old I had DNA run on him, and the results came back as him being male. From what I understand DNA is the most accurate method of sexing cockatiels, so I just took it in stride and went, 'ok, he's male'. His behaviour is certainly male; he is always very active, he constantly plays with every toy I cycle in and out for him, he's always flying around the house and tumbling all over me and he sings and vocalizes very frequently. He's a super outgoing little bird. I was also informed that barring on the tail feathers and spotting on the undersides of the wings indicates a female. I believe he's nearing the end of his moult considering he's growing in primary flight feathers and new tail feathers, but his tail feathers are just as barred as his juvenile feathers and his new flight feathers certainly have underside spotting just as prominent as the ones before them.
Is this a nutritional thing? I feed him a mix of a variety of zupreem's 'essential nutrition' pellets supplemented with a veggie salad every day. Can DNA results be wrong? Are there cases of male cockatiels retaining underwing spotting and tail barring after their first moults? He's a cinnamon cockatiel, I'm not sure if he's split with anything else. Would his colour mutation have anything to do with it? Is he simply still too young to tell yet? Attached below is a picture of him, if that helps.
Thank you very much for any responses! :cinnamon:
I've been an avid reader of these forums for months now, but I just made an account to be able to ask this question! Please let me know if this isn't the appropriate place to post this, I'll move it lickety split.
My cockatiel Rocket hatched on October 21st of 2018. I am beyond in love with him. When he was around two months old I had DNA run on him, and the results came back as him being male. From what I understand DNA is the most accurate method of sexing cockatiels, so I just took it in stride and went, 'ok, he's male'. His behaviour is certainly male; he is always very active, he constantly plays with every toy I cycle in and out for him, he's always flying around the house and tumbling all over me and he sings and vocalizes very frequently. He's a super outgoing little bird. I was also informed that barring on the tail feathers and spotting on the undersides of the wings indicates a female. I believe he's nearing the end of his moult considering he's growing in primary flight feathers and new tail feathers, but his tail feathers are just as barred as his juvenile feathers and his new flight feathers certainly have underside spotting just as prominent as the ones before them.
Is this a nutritional thing? I feed him a mix of a variety of zupreem's 'essential nutrition' pellets supplemented with a veggie salad every day. Can DNA results be wrong? Are there cases of male cockatiels retaining underwing spotting and tail barring after their first moults? He's a cinnamon cockatiel, I'm not sure if he's split with anything else. Would his colour mutation have anything to do with it? Is he simply still too young to tell yet? Attached below is a picture of him, if that helps.

Thank you very much for any responses! :cinnamon: