Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 3/16/2008

Question
Hi

My kids have two cockatiels and we are not sure about their sexes. We have noticed two days ago that they have started to mate. One of them is taking the male part (Spikey) and the other is taking the female part (Griza). There is a particular noise happening from one of the birds while they mate and the one on top keeps moving his mouth all the time but when we get near them they sort of move, so we are not sure who is making most of the noise. We do not see any difference in there cheeks colour, To us they have the same colouring. We are preparing a box with wood chips and paper for them. We have put this into their cage and saw that Spikey is going in and out of the box and sometimes Griza follows. Can you help us finding out the sexes of our birds? and can yo tell us if they like a closed box for a nest? what size does the cage need to be?

Thanking you
Best regards
Catherine, Xenia and Kian Peter

Answer
Hi, Catherine,

I would have to know the overall coloration of each bird in detail in order to sex them without a photo.

It sounds to me like your birds know their sexes!  The one on top during mating is the male, the one under the male is the female.  The bird feeding its mate beak-to-beak is the male.  The male prepares the nesting box before he will allow his female inside it.  You need to put up a cockatiel-sized, wooden nesting box that you can purchase at most pet stores.  Yes, the nest needs to be closed with only a round hole in the front so the parents can go in and out.  In addition, the best setup is to attach the wooden nesting box on the outside of the cage and only allow the round entrance/exit hole to be inside the cage.  This will save inside cage space and is best setup for the birds, as well as yourself, because you will need to be able to lift the lid of the nesting box and clean it out regularly, check on babies, etc.  Do not use any substrate in the bottom of the nest....tiels do not like this and usually won't go inside the nest nor lay eggs when substrate is present.  At minimum, the cage needs to be a size whereby either bird can vigorously flap its wings without touching anything in the cage with any part of its wings or body.  Considering there may be offspring in the near future, you will need to allow for the possibility of 6 hatchlings plus both adult birds, depending on if you are going to pull the babies for handfeeding or if you are going to allow the parents to raise their hatchlings.  More info on my website:  www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html.

You really need to educate yourself quickly about all of this in case you or your birds run into problems during any of this process.  You will need to know when to intervene and know what to do.  Caring for parrots and their offspring can be complicated.

Chrys