Early B-day/ XMAS present

[Aqueous]

Well my birthday is coming up in December and I've been hinting to my parents that I wanted to get another budgie.

On Tuesday I went out with my dad (he told me he were going to a friends house to drop something off) and when we got there his "friend" turned out to be a breeder who had around 12 handfed cockatiels (around 10-11 weeks).

So now, thanks to my mom (she bought him/her for me), I have a new baby.

Zero is an 11 week old yellow/grey pied cockatiel. He/she is extremely affectionate and loves to be taken out of the cage and scratched and goes completly crazy for millet spray (had millet spray husks all over my shirt yesterday ). It's been so long since I had a cockatiel that I'd forgotten how affectionate they can be. I'm completly in love with him/her.

Zero's just learning "step up" but is picking up on it really fast.

I'll post some pictures once I find where my dad's hidden the extra batteries for the camera.

I also have a quick question: I know pieds aren't dimorphic but would it be possible to tell the difference btwn male and female through the barring on their tail. Zero has a dark grey tail with juvenile barring but when he/she is older do you think you could tell this way or would I have to get Zero DNA sexed (not for breeding, I'd just like to know).

[charmedagain]

Depending on the rue mutation you maybe able to visually sex Zero after his or her first molt.

I have added a link to a website that deals with wing spot sexing but this should not be used as an accurate way of sexing as some mutations differe from chick to chick.

Hope it gives you an idea what to look for.
Just skip through the pages till you find the mutation you bird is.

http://community-2.webtv.net/Rainey97/CockatielWingSpot/index.html

Mike