Thread: How can you tell the difference between a male and female lutino cockatiel?

Hi i have just purchased what i have been told is a male lutino cockatiel but since he has been in the aviary another male cockatiel (normal grey) has been grooming him. Just want to make sure its a male lutino, so how do i tell the difference? Or is a male grooming another male a usual thing?

Thanks!

the female Lutino ususally has a big a$$ like J.Lo

ahh..finally a question that i can answer with ease,

its simple my dear............which one, is the one the squakes all day long..and all night non stop?......every day........?

........then that must be the female one......

the male has a dick...duh

It somewhat upsets me that people answer questions they have no idea about and missinformation can be detrimental sometimes, especially when it comes to animals.

Lutino cockatiels are one of the few birds that can be visually sexed. This information is based on true lutinos... if they are pieds, lutino perals or lutino whitefaces let me know as the information is different. However, females will have bright yellow spots on their flight feathers and their tails will have a barring cream on yellow or yellow on cream pattern. The males lack these traits, however, some paler coloured lutinos may appear as to not have these traits when they actually do. To be sure, you can take a molted tail or flight feather and hold it up to the light.

As an ex breeder of various mutation Cokatiels I can say with confidence that it is easy to the experienced breeder but maybe not to the novice

A male is much brighter on the patches (cheeks) and the Hen carries a barring like a Yellow spot on the feathers under the wings and tail,these can be difficult to make out too the novice.

So it is best if you can find a breeder in your area that knows what too look for.

You can just wait till they attempt to breed?

the male should have a feather on his tail that has spots on it and the female will just have a plane tail

Heh. Everyone says it's "Easy" but it is not. On Lutinos, both genders have bright cheeks and heads. My Lutino was banded a male, but after HER second molt, and a year trying to teach her to talk and whistle as she stared at me blankly, she showed bars on her flight feathers and the vet said she's a girl. It's hard to tell until they molt, really.

As for grooming, gender makes no difference, it's a flock thing. They groom to protect their flock - a sick bird will have unkempt feathers (among other things) and get attacked, so they groom each other as a form of affection and protection.

Anyway, this is from cockatiels.org about Lutinos and sexing:

These birds have no grey at all on them, their bodies cannot make the grey or brown pigments. A bird with a lot of yellow that has dark eyes and perhaps a small area of grey somewhere, even only one feather or toenail, is not a lutino but a pied. Lutinos can be visually sexed since the females will have the same bright yellow spots under the flight feathers and their tails will show a yellow on cream or cream on yellow barring pattern. Males are sexed by the absence of these traits. One note -- a very pale lutino may not show the patterns clearly, try holding a shed tail feather up to a strong light. It has been said that Lutino-pearls are difficult to sex. These same people claim some males retain their pearls for several molts and, depending on the extent of the pearling the underwing spots and tail bars may or may not have been present to begin with in either male or female. If you have a baby lutino-pearl with spots and/or bars who loses them in the juvenile molt you know that you've got a male. If you've got an adult without these markings you can be fairly certain it is a male.

Good luck!