[Raiderette]

Hi everyone,

I am new here. I have a 14yr old lutino who lives with my Mum because she loves him so much. I'm not allowed to have him come home with me (lol) so I am looking to buy a new hand-raised baby for me . I'm not sure what I should be looking for, but I think I would prefer a male. I've been trying to find some breeders around my area (Canberra, Australia) , and have visited a couple but the birds are either female, older than 3-4mths or not tamed, just hand-reared and left. Do I need to travel to Sydney to find a good bird? Should I be getting a newly weaned baby, or is it ok to get a 3mth old if I want it tame? Is there a better mutation/colour to get so that I am more likely to come home with a male?

Any help would be much appreciated

 

[allen]

if you want a hand fed tiel then may i sugesta hand fed tiel i,m sure the others that are from australia on this forum will no of some good breeders getting a hand fed tiel was the best thing i did they do require alot of attention though everybody has there own personal preference on mutation so it is all up to what you like

 

[Bea]

Hi there, and welcome!! I'm in Canberra and i can tell you now there are a few good tiel breeders in Canberra. Whether or not they'll have babies at the moment is another matter, but they could have. Getting a baby when it's just weaned is good, it's best if it hasn't been allowed to start going wild in an aviary. I'll PM you the email address and phone number of the breeders i got Bailee from. If they have nothing you can try contacting the Aviculture Society of Canberra and see if they can point you to a different breeder.

http://www.avisocietycanberra.org.au/

 

[Laura]

Welcome to the forum you have come to the right place Bea can steer you in the right direction

 

[allen]

who better then to have bea give you advise

 

[xxxSpikexxx]

Welcome Good luck on finding a new cockatiel. Mabey you could get the baby you find dna tested to see if it is a male. The breeder I got Spike from will dna test the birds until you find the sex you want(you pay for the tests). I would not of been able to do that though. If Spike was a girl I was going to take him home anyway.

 

[Sophia]

Hi, and welcome Hope you find the tiel you want, and find a good breeder

 

[Aly]

Hi and Welcome! Bea should be able to give you some great info.

 

[nic bike]

Welcome! hope you find the perfect Tiel for yourself!

 

[Raiderette]

Hi everyone, thanks for your quick replies and good wishes.

I've been to see some babies today, a friend at work said they knew someone. I found a whiteface (i think it was whiteface pearl) that I quite liked. The babies were all unweaned, so not ready to go home yet (which is ok with me) but the breeder said they were about 3 mths old and being slow to wean. They all looked very scruffy/untidy/dirty and the whiteface was missing a big spot of feathers on his chest. The cages were spotless and clean, and the whiteface looked quite happy and would come out and step onto my finger and was happy for me to scratch his chest (even where the bald patch was). So, I'm a bit confused. Should they have been weaned by now? The breeder said they were going to keep feeding until they weaned. I just wanted to take the whiteface and give it a bath!!!!! The poor thing looked like it wasn't preaning or anything. Would this be something that I should steer clear of? I quite liked him/her and was keen to put a deposit down.

PS - thanks Bea for the advice on breeders, I am going to visit tomorrow or thursday!

 

[allen]

when i got stretch he was 9 weeks old full of feathers and fully weaned i have seen some just clean the cages just before people come over to see the birds to impress the buyer if they are scruffy looking i would be cautious and the other conditions would be not good either i,m not saying the breeder is bad but that length of time to wean i,m sure laurago, bea and others will give good advice to

 

[Bea]

If they're 3 months old they're being slow to wean for sure, hehe, but that's good that the breeder is letting them take as long as they want. It makes for a much happier pet if the baby has been weaned at its own pace. I would worry if they're scruffy looking or dirty though, they should be fully feathered and healthy looking, with neat and clean feathers. A little bit of formula around their beaks and chest is pretty normal with hand reared babies.

Let us know how your visit to the breeder i told you about goes. Did they say they had any babies at the moment?

 

[xxxSpikexxx]

I would be worried if they is a bald patch. Mabey it was formula and not his skin?

 

[Raiderette]

Hi all,

Bit of an update, I visited the breeder Bea gave me, they had three lovely babies - one grey with a yellowy/grey face who was pretty much weaned, and two little ones who are still around 4ish weeks til they are weaned (cant remember how old they were). One baby was a whiteface grey, but he was sold , the other was a normal grey with yellow face.
But, by chance this afternoon my mum found a business card at the local pet shop for a bird expert and I thought I would call to ask for advice on the baby I saw yesterday. It turned out the bird expert had two hand reared babies, both male and whiteface. I went to have a look and I fell in love They are three days apart and the older one is just weaned and ready to go, the other is nearly done. They are about 9-10wks old. Their mother is a completely white lutino (they're not albino are they?) and the father is a very dark grey whiteface. So now I just have to choose which one I want!

Thanks for your advice everyone And thanks Bea for the breeder, they are really nice and I will definately recommend them (they had some other beautiful birds!) - I think I must have just had my heart set on a whiteface!

 

[Bea]

Sounds like you found some good babies there! I can understand you wanting a white face, they are GORGEOUS!! White lutinos are known as whiteface lutinos. The parents sound beautiful. I can't wait to see which ever baby you choose. How does the breeder know they're male? Did he get them dna sexed?

 

[DeBree420]

well... if the mother was the normal grey whiteface and the father was the albino(lutino whiteface), then all the female babies would be visually albino...
but this does not work the other way around... you get 50% normal w/f girls and 50% normal w/f split lutino boys...
so there is no way to tell the sexes at that age visually...
the only 'split' that is visual in any way is pied.. which creates the little white/yellow spots on the back of the head...(and other places.... just the head is most common)..

but yeah... i love whitefaces!
and it sounds like you found yourself some healthy ones... so i say go for it

 

[Sophia]

Hope you decide which one you want, It is so HARD!!! :lol:

 

[xxxSpikexxx]

Thats great Can't wait to see photos of whichever one you choose

 

[Sophia]

I can't wait to see photos either, have you decided which one you are going too get yet??

 

[Raiderette]

I'm thinking I'm going to go for the younger/smaller one. I was hoping to pick him up tomorrow but it doesn't look like I can. I bought a cage off ebay and it hasn't arrived yet It should arrive today as the seller told me it was picked up by the courier yesterday (where it was sent from to my house is only 1 day turnaround according to courier). I called the seller as they are meant to give me the number of the parcel so I can track it. The seller told me they don't have the number - that it hasn't come through from the courier, and the courier company said that the seller should of had a number from the label they put on the parcel. Now I can't call the seller back as they have been engaged for two hours! How convenient! lol.

As for the breeder knowing what sex the babies are, I'm not sure. I noticed myself that they both have a lot of white coming through on their faces, more than I think they would have if they were female. Maybe that is how he sexed them. I'll probably go and see them tomorrow, so I will ask.