How long does it take for the head of a baby cockatiel to change its colour?

I have a baby cockatiel and I was wondering how long it takes for it to change its head colour.....and how can you tell if its a male or a female, my birds is fully grey with light orange spots on his/her cheeks and a little yellow on its crest,beak and forehead and it has like 2 yellow feathers under its tails and the rest are white anfd grey with horizontal spots. The breeder I bought it from said that if the bird changes its head colour to yellow, it will be a male..and if it doesnt its a female....how can you tell if its gonna change its head colour or not?? Thanks :)How long does it take for the head of a baby cockatiel to change its colour?
Your bird's head will only change color if it's a male.



You will not be able to identify the sex of your bird visually until about 9-12 months of age, when your bird will molt (shed) juvenile feathers and grow adult plumage.



First, you will notice feathers dropping.



If your bird is a male, you will start to see yellow patches appear on his cheeks, as the grey feathers are replaced by yellow ones. His crest will become mostly yellow. He will lose the horizontal stripes (barring) on the underside of the tailfeathers. And, if your bird is a pearl mutation (fish-scale pattern), and a male - he will also lose most, if not all of his pearls. This genetic mutation is only visual in females.



DNA testing is the only way to determine the sex of juvenile cockatiels (under 9 months), who all look like hens (females).



However, once cockatiels have their adult plumage, visually sexing is easy.



All adult females have horizontal barring (stripes) on the underside of their tail feathers, including whiteface-lutinos (white/albino). These can be seen by facing your bird, with bright sunlight/light behind it.



The barring is not color, but the structure of the feather itself. Each stripe is actually a transluscent (see-through) gap, without the little feather %26quot;hairs%26quot;. For example: a lutino (yellow), or whiteface-lutino (white) hen against a blue background, will appear to have thin blue stripes on the tail feathers. Banding on dark hens is more obvious against a white or light colored background.



Males have a solid structure along both sides of the quill.



In all mutations, except whiteface-lutino, females have a single pea-sized dot on their primary wing feathers. Males do not.



On standard greys, the males have a mostly yellow crest. Females have yellow at the tip. Females have grey mixed in with the color on cheek patches, creating a muted or gray appearance, while males are bright. On whiteface grey birds, females will have little, if any, white on the cheeks.



Male and female pieds, and lutino's (yellow), have the same basic colorations, but females still have tail barring, and the dot on the primary feathers.



Pearl (fish scale pattern) males will lose most, if not all of their pearling as they age.



Here's a great link for visually sexing cockatiels:

http://www.cockatiels.org/articles/genet



The only 100% accurate method of sexing a young bird (before the first molt), is by DNA testing. If you really need to know, you can have your bird tested yourself with a tiny sample of blood (toenail), a few feathers pulled from the chest area, or it's egg shell.



DNA sexing alone costs less than $25. Samples can also be tested for disease and parasites.



http://www.avianbiotech.com/



Never use pelvic sexing. It is not only inaccurate and outdated - it's also potentially dangerous. And it doesn't mean anything on young birds. The recognizable gap in the bone doesn't occur until females have begun laying eggs.



As for behavior, males tend to be vocal, affectionate and bold. Females tend to be rather quiet and shy. However, there are always exceptions.



Here are some of my favorite websites for cockatiels, and other parrots:

http://www.cockatiel.org/

http://www.cockatiels.org/

http://www.tailfeathersnetwork.com/

http://www.birdsnways.com/

http://www.birdchannel.com/How long does it take for the head of a baby cockatiel to change its colour?
just a month.. i got mine at a few weeks.. and by about him being a month old. hes a very beautiful color nowHow long does it take for the head of a baby cockatiel to change its colour?
All grey cockatiels have spots under their wings and tail barring, and they all look like females until their first molt at around 6 months or second molt at around 12 months, when their adult feathers grow in. Females are much quieter, only making a few chirping sounds or short whistling sounds, while males are usually quite vocal. You will just have to wait and see.