[ejoypousson]

My supposedly both female (DNA tested!) pair of cockatiels had babies.

Mother (she's pearl):

Father:

Babies:

Parents both have the red reflective eye of cinnamons. They both have to be pearls since all the babies are pearls. There is a whiteface baby so parents should both be split to whiteface. Father looks like he's pied, and I think the babies look pied? So mother should carry pied too?

What I'm unsure about is the older whiteface baby had no cinnamon eyes. If both parents are cinnamon, I would have thought all babies would be cinnamon. Or does it mean that whiteface baby is a male, split to cinnamon?

The youngest one was hatched with white down but it looks like it's visually cinnamon too.

Would appreciate thoughts on the mutations of parents and babies and the sex of the babies.

 

[Misstiel]

The father is a pied split to whiteface, pearl and cinnamon. Was he pearled when he was younger? The only way you would get 100% pearl chicks is if the father was a visual pearl which would make him a pearl pied split to whiteface and cinnamon. The mother is a cinnamon pearl pied split to whiteface. That's why you have 100% pied chicks. Not all chicks will be 100% cinnamon because the male is split to cinnamon, not visual. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell the sex of the babies visually because of the parents' mutations. You would have to DNA them to find out for sure.

 

[ejoypousson]

The father is a pied split to whiteface, pearl and cinnamon. Was he pearled when he was younger? The only way you would get 100% pearl chicks is if the father was a visual pearl which would make him a pearl pied split to whiteface and cinnamon. The mother is a cinnamon pearl pied split to whiteface. That's why you have 100% pied chicks. Not all chicks will be 100% cinnamon because the male is split to cinnamon, not visual. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell the sex of the babies visually because of the parents' mutations. You would have to DNA them to find out for sure.

Thank you! I completely forgot to think about the father's appearance when he was younger. No, he wasn't pearled, so he must be a split to pearl. It just so happens that all the chicks that survived (I had 5 originally ) are pearled. It's too bad I can't visually sex them, oh well! I appreciate the help.

 

[Misstiel]

Oh, okay, that makes sense, then. I'm sorry about your loss. It's devastating when you lose chicks. 🙁. Yeah, unfortunately since the mother has sex-linked mutations, that means you can't tell for sure what the chicks will be. I would say if you wait until after their first molt, the pearl markings always leave if it's a male, but that isn't accurate with yours since all of them have pied, which means that males can keep the pearl markings.