can you determine sex by masturbation?

[Cockatango]

My lutino tiel is just over a year old. At first we thought she was a boy, but because of her lack of tuneful singing (skipping record yapping) we now think she's a girl.
However the other day, Tango discovered masturbation. Then I realised this could be a way to sex her(/him?)
Tango has a ladder running horizontally along the cage - with wooden beads running the length of it. Tango's taken to rubbing her vent back and forth on that with the tail pointing down.
(Many internet sources say this is the male masturbation method)

So my question is, do females masturbate like males? or have I got myself a little man cockatiel

 

[Catherine89]

My female lutino does this all the time. My Male who is olny about 8 months has started to do this as well . The main difference is she tends to sing her own little song. I would advise taking out what ever it is
He/she is doing this on because If it is a female she may start to lay eggs . Does he or she make any noises while this is going on?

 

[sunnysmom]

I've never heard that you can tell that way. Some male characteristics are doing heart wings, beak banging and whistling/talking. But those aren't for certain. This may help:

Lutino

 

[Smbrds]

Male displaying behavior usually are the heart wings and whistling at least that's how it is with Baby. If an egg hasn't been laid yet it probably will, then it'll be female.

 

[Cockatango]

My female lutino does this all the time. My Male who is olny about 8 months has started to do this as well . The main difference is she tends to sing her own little song. I would advise taking out what ever it is
He/she is doing this on because If it is a female she may start to lay eggs . Does he or she make any noises while this is going on?

yes actually, she does a little chittering sound. she also makes this sound when she's about to sing her own wee song

 

[Catherine89]

Hmmm if she singing without doing that could be male . It’s always hard to tell especially with the Lutino mutation because the male and female both have the bright orange checks. Best way to tell is to see if she lays an egg . This is my female

 

[Smbrds]

Such a pretty bird she is!

 

[Catherine89]

Thanks

 

[Birdlover42]

I had a female who we thought was a male because of her bright colots and cheeks. She was not a lutino. The pet store told me she was most likely a boy and she was very young when we got her .It wasn't until we got another bird which was male and they started mating then she laid an egg. We changed her name from Sampson to Samantha. Looking back we saw behaviors that we're more female however she also displayed what we thought were male behaviors .It's truly so difficult to sex a bird!

 

[Birdlover42]

Trying to post a pic of my Girl Samantha. Hopefully it works!

 

[Monica]

Alicia, Samantha is pied, which is an anti-dimorphic mutation. In other words, it means that you can't normally tell gender by normal visual methods. I had a pied female as well, and the people who found her (wish someone better would have!) named her Tom because they thought she was male based on the bright face. I examined her and said she was female. They didn't believe me until she started laying eggs... Although not exactly reliable, she still had the barred tail feathers (on a few non-pied feathers) and spots on her non-pied feathers. Nothing about her said male to me! But she enjoyed "wolf whistling"! (the only "male" behavior she had)

My first cockatiel is a cinnamon pearl pied. Cinnamon and pearl are both sex-linked mutations which meant a higher chance of being female, and the breeder also nest sexed her. (guessing her mother wasn't cinnamon and/or pearl? never met the breeder) Due to being pied, she also has a bright yellow head and orange cheek patches!



Cockatango - if your tiel has already gone through his/her first molt, then get a black light! It can be a cheap LED one or a tube light or screw in - doesn't matter. Once you have it, take your tiel into a dark room. Mature males will not have bars/stripes on wings and tail feathers but females will! Unless of course your tiel is also pied... which could throw off the sexing. Be sure to check out the Lutino article posted by Michelle (sunnysmom) above!

 

[Cockatango]

My female lutino does this all the time. My Male who is olny about 8 months has started to do this as well . The main difference is she tends to sing her own little song. I would advise taking out what ever it is
He/she is doing this on because If it is a female she may start to lay eggs . Does he or she make any noises while this is going on?

s/he does actually! usually s/he does a little bit of chirping to herself, then big loud repetitive notes. when s/he masturbates, it's constantly that pre-chirrup sound

 

[blewin]

Yeah, no, Buddy was using all of her toys as, um, "toys" for a while. She hasn't been interested for a few years, which is a bit of a relief.

 

[Birdlover42]

So the pic I posted above is sampson who became Samantha/Sammy once we found out he was a girl .In this pic she is looking up at her human boyfriend who is my fiance. She absolutely loved him. If she was on his shoulder I could not come near her lol she would snuggle and preen him. It was adorable.

 

[ayushiest]

good one