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Thanks for the link Claudia. That is funny! Nice to think I will get some pearl girls tho! I love the pearls and always think it's such a pity that the boys lose that when they mature! One of the things I really enjoy about breeding the tiels and my Ringnecks is that you never know what the chicks are going to end up being!

I know exactly what you mean!
Our biggest suprise was to find out that Noah (our grey male) was split for pearl.
I still can't believe we ended up with 1 pied pearl, he is just soooooooooooo beautiful

Patti In Oz wrote: We have a pair of yellow faced cinnamon tiels. They occasionally throw pearl cocks. I've read enough to understand that because pearl is a sex linked trait all the pearls they throw will have to be cocks.

I know this is an old post, but had to reply.... indeed, the pearl mutation is sex-linked. However, if a pair of birds, not visual pearls themselves, throw pearl offspring, then this means that the father is split pearl and all pearl offpsring are hens, not cocks. Hens cannot be split pearl. Male birds are Z,Z (X,X) and female birds are Z,W (X,Y). Sex-linked mutations are only carried on the Z (X) chromosome. Males need two genes in order to be visual, while hens need only one.


Mother:Grey x Father:Pearl

male offspring:
100% Grey Split To {X1: Pearl}

female offspring:
100% Pearl



Mother:Grey x Father:Grey Split To {X2: Pearl}

male offspring:
50% Grey
50% Grey Split To {X1: Pearl}

female offspring:
50% Grey
50% Pearl



Mother:Pearl x Father:Grey Split To {X2: Pearl}

male offspring:
50% Grey Split To {X2: Pearl}
50% Pearl

female offspring:
50% Grey
50% Pearl



Mother:Pearl x Father:Pearl

male offspring:
100% Pearl

female offspring:
100% Pearl

Well....I must have an extra special pair then. Because the last Pearl my pair of visual cinnamons threw is DEFINITELY a cock. He went to my sis in law and I just saw him today. He is definitely a he unless there are exceptional cases where hens have no barring on the flights or tail feathers?????

Patti, I'd be interested in pictures of the parents, as well as this pearl offspring! How old is this one? Has he/she lost his pearls?

Depending on mutation, hens may not have any barring on the flights or tail feathers at all... although I don't have any hens like that.

This last Pearl was hatched on Feb 16 08. I don't have any pics of him...will get one next time I go and see my sis-in-law. He's going through a molt right now and is losing his pearling. Here's a link to a pic of the parents. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_and_patti/2798700278/ (cock at the front, hen at the back) Sadly the hen had a stoke a few weeks back. She's an old girl, so we retired her from the breeding program and she is back to being an inside pet.

If this is so, then I'd have to wonder if perhaps another hen (that is a pearl, and has mated with a pearl or split pearl cock) was laying in their nest? I have not heard of a non-pearl hen having pearl cock offspring... perhaps you are dealing with a new mutation or something????

This pair has always been housed separately. And at the time that the last Pearl was hatched we didn't even own another cock tiel....lol! So I can say with confidence that he definitely came from this pair.

even if you can't go by colouring or barring etc, I found it very easy to determine the sex of my tiel babies once they were about 8 weeks old purely from behaviour!
All the boys started to get really noisy then and they started doing the heartwing thing as well soooooooo cute