Introducing Spike

[songlake]

During my various reading of sites and browsing pictures of all sorts of fids I decided I really loved the look of white faced cockatiels. And after our disastrous introduction on hand feeding with Sunny and so so introduction of not handfeeding but parent fed babies with Chili, I didn't mind that Spike wasn't feeding him/her self yet but was happy to do the handfeeding. I've waited a few weeks before introducing him/her while continuing to read everything about tiels and feeding etc.

Skipper has taken to spike and treats him as a child. Unfortunately it also means cleaning dirty feathers from his breast after my daughter did a messy feeding and didn't clean spike well afterwards. Skipper did the clean up We quickly got spike away and bathed it but we weren't quick enough to save some of the breast feathers Skip pulled. More careful now to make sure that spike is always clean before Skipper gets to preen him and that they are supervised.

So anyway.. How long before I can tell if spike is a boy or girl? And what exactly is he/she color wise? I know it's white faced and I know one of the parents was a white tiel with possibly pink eyes since there was a sibling white with pink eyes. But is this also pearl or are the speckles normal for babies? Oh, one more question. The breeder said Spike was 4.5 weeks old and it did look more like a baby bird with sheathed feathers and stuff but it would now put it at 6 weeks old and he/she is already flying. Do they fly that young? It's not going far and the landings are generally bad but it's flying.

 

[hacatta]

Congrats with your new baby.
His/hers colors are amazing!!!!

 

[Tangie]

Congratulations!
Spike looks extremely cute.
And I can't blame Skipper for trying to clean him up. 83
Hopefully they become fast friends.

 

[songlake]

Thanks!

Well they are already friends on skippers side. Spike isn't too sure of the situation since skippers love comes with a little bit of pain with his wanting to clean spike up just a little too much! Skipper has a soft spot for babies..if only I could convince him the budgies ARE babies too lol.

 

[witchbaby]

Aww, such a pretty cockatiel.

 

[prsgirl77]

Awww spike is adorable

 

[MonicaMc]

Spike is a whiteface pearl split pied.


Can you get a picture of Spike's parents?



I'm going to guess that Spike is *probably* a hen! If so, she's going to have gorgeous tail feathers as an adult! (them them clear tail feathers!)

 

[songlake]

I've been reading about pearls and sexing, something about spots on the under side of the wings. When I pulled her wings out to look she has very large white blobs until about 1/2 way from wingtips to mid wing then they get smaller and smaller. I also found a site that said to feel the pelvic bones gently..now I have no point of reference but they felt pointy to me which the site said was a boy, but with wing spots the other site said a girl. I'm leaning towards spike becoming a Spikey for a girl.

The breeder started telling me her genetics when I bought her but since I have/had no plans to breed her I wasn't really listening good. I do recall him saying something about sex linked white tiel but then again I heard cinnamon and she's definitely not a cinnamon One of her siblings was pure white with pink eyes and he did say one of her parents was white and she had the potential to have white offspring if bred with.. again I wasn't listening!

It's good though if she's a girl since she will keep her beautiful spots! Boy WF are gorgeous too, don't get me wrong but I do love her pearl colors.

she's now moving on to mashed veggies..yah! nearly weaned

 

[RavensGryf]

I love the look of whiteface tiels! I think they're SO pretty. If I were into cockatiels I'd get a white faced for sure

 

[songlake]

I said the same thing RavensGryf. I didn't like the look of normal grey Cockatiels but when I seen WF's while browsing around I loved the look. And when I found Spike in the petshop (when I went to get budgies) I fell in love with her and brought her home. She's not as personable as a sun conure (yet) but she's always flying for me where ever I go, especially if it's dinner time! And she made these really cute sounds when she was smaller that sounded almost like a baby whimpering which pulled on my maternal instincts. I was a sucker!

She likes Skipper, doesn't mind Chili too much when Chili leaves her alone and she hates the budgies. I guess Gris picks on her so I have to keep a close eye on them all since Gris is a meanie to everyone.

 

[MonicaMc]

If Spike's mother is not a pearl, then there is no shadow of a doubt that Spike is a girl! If Spike's mother is a pearl, then it's 50/50 of being male or female!


The spots aren't exactly very accurate until the bird is mature and has lost all baby feathers - but by that time, you'd be able to tell anyway!

 

[songlake]

lol! I guess i'll live with mystery for the next 5-6 months at least. For some reason I'm pretty sure her dad was the white one.

For the record I think she is a girl. she's always super quiet even with the other birds are going bonkers and she's quite shy, preferring to be with me rather than hang with those noisy creatures

new spikey pics




You've come a long way Baby!