Ask Lafeber

Question:

June 16, 2022

I want to know if my cockatiel is male or female


Hii today I examined my cockatiel’s pelvis bone to be sure if it’s a male or female. I got to know that gap between the pelvis bone is to wide like 2 Inch is it normal ‘Ok’. please let me know.


Answer:

Hi,

It is actually a myth that you can tell a bird’s gender by the pelvic bone gap. You literally have a 50/50 guess by doing that. The pelvic gap has no connection to males or females. Males can have a wide gap, females can have their pelvic bones touching. It’s random and not related to anything more than each individual bird. That being said, you must have your unit of measure mixed up because there is no way a cockatiel can have a 2 inch gap. No parrot would have a gap that wide other than maybe the largest parrot and only while laying an egg.

As for telling the sex, you can tell the sex of many cockatiels just by their markings, depending on what the mutation is. For some mutations, there is no visible difference and in that case, you would need to have a DNA test done. If you want to email a photo to customerservice@lafeber.com I can let you know if your bird can be visually sexed.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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