Don't worry, it wasn't my baby that flew into a ceiling fan, it was somebody on a different board.

It sounds like your baby has the spot gene! This is fairly common but no one really understands it. I've been trying to figure it out for several years now, and 'spot gene' is the term that I made up so I'd have something to call it. Apparently it's a variation found in wild cockatiels that has been around for a long time. But for some reason it's strongly associated with the whiteface gene in pet cockatiels - about 90% of the birds that have it are either whiteface or split to whiteface. I only have two breeding pairs, but both of them give me some spot gene babies.

Besides little spots or stripes on the chest, other common signs are speckles on the underside of the wing that are visible even when the wing is folded; a little 'blaze' on the forehead; a scalloped look on the lower belly caused by lighter edges on the feathers; and once in a while, little stripes or spots on the side or back of the head.

This is Squeebis as a baby:


And one of his brothers. I've had quite a few spot gene babies, but these two were the best marked.

If it's really important to know the baby's sex, you can have a DNA test done. Vets tend to charge a lot for this, but if you can collect the sample yourself you can send it to a lab and they'll do it for $20. Collecting the sample is the hard part, since they usually need either a blood sample (collected by clipping a toenail a little bit too short so it bleeds) or a few freshly plucked feathers (molted feathers won't work). It's possible to do DNA sexing with egg shells, so if you kept the egg shells and know which one this baby came from, you might be able to get it done with no trauma. I don't know how long the egg shell DNA stays good so you'd have to ask the lab whether this would work three or four weeks after hatching.

Avian Biotech is the most popular lab, but my anti-virus software doesn't like their website so I don't know how safe it is for your computer. Here's the link if you dare to use it: http://www.avianbiotech.com/

Here's a lab in the Phoenix area that's recommended by my local pet bird club. I've used their services and they were good. http://www.petdnaservicesaz.com/avian-testing/

Wow, beautiful babies! Well, this weird. I'm pretty sure neither of the parents have a whiteface gene. I guess they could, but none of their babies were even spilt to whiteface, let alone regular whiteface. So, that doesn't really make sense. Do you remember whenever you and Baruch said it was a cinnamon? Well, it looks just like mommy. I think I'm going to do a photo shoot today......where should I post them?

There are lots of options for posting photos. You can post them in the Photos subforum, or post them in this thread, or start a new thread in any reasonably appropriate place. I'd suggest a new thread, since this one has a lot of sad stuff in it and it would be nice to make a fresh start in a happier place.

It's possible that one of your parent birds is split to whiteface. Splits tend to be pretty silent and hidden, and it's hard to tell that they're there. But it's also possible to have spots without the whiteface gene. I have an old book that was printed before the whiteface mutation even existed, and there are pictures of spot gene birds in it. There are some spot gene babies whose ancestry is known for 3 or 4 generations with no sign of a whiteface gene.

I have huge windows too and no curtains because they love sitting on the window sill and perches, and look outside.
I read about the X tape and I was not sure it would help... It actually did because they were scared of it, silly
So I suggest it as a cheap alternative to buying curtains.
One thing though, you need to check it every few days. I didn't, and after two months when I went to pull it off it was glued to the glass... The sun does that. It took a lot of time and steam to clean it up.

Tielfan, if I post a picture of Bubu when he was a little boy would you be able to see if he has the spot gene? He looked like your babies but he lost his spots after the second molting.

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Sure, I'd love to see a picture! If he had chest spots then we already know the answer but I'm interested in seeing his markings. Males lose the spots when they mature, the same way they lose pearl markings when they mature.