My two cockatiels Frankie and Farrah just recently had their first clutch of 3 beautiful healthy babies. I was wondering if anyone may be able to tell me if the babies look like they are going to be pearl like their mommy Farrah? I think so but not 100% sure. Also, would I be able to determine sex? I don't know what Frankie and Farrahs parents were. If I need to get a dna test done on the babies I was told I could use their egg shells so I kept them in separate ziploc bags. Will they still be able to be tested giving as they are over 2 weeks old or no? Thank you and I look forward to feedback!
Here is the link to the photos of the babies I took yesterday and also the parents.
http://s100.photobucket.com/user/kaylab ... Cockatiels

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I'm really really bad at identifying pearls at this stage, but it looks like you've got some. Daddy must be split to pearl, and you can get pearl babies of both sexes. If Mom was NOT pearl, you would only be able to get pearl girls. It's a sex-linked mutation and the inheritance rules are complicated.

All the babies will be pied because both parents are visual pied. It's too soon to tell how heavy the pied markings will be, but I see a lot of white wing feathers. The pied mutation is ordinary recessive so it doesn't tell us anything about the baby's sex.

It looks like Mom is NOT cinnamon, so if you get any cinnamon babies they will be girls. It's a sex-linked mutation too. I'm not sure whether any of the chicks are cinnamon, the white coating on the pinfeathers makes it hard to tell how dark the feathers are.

I figured it would be difficult to know for sure since I don't know exactly what the parents are. I was told by many breeders my female was a cinnamon pearl and I do notice the brownish tint to her which pictures dont do her justice.
Any input as far as the dna testing of the babies egg shells? I dont know if they are still ok to be checked since they've been sitting for over 2 weeks in ziploc bags. If worse case scenario I will bring them to my vet to be sexed. Is it safe to have them sexed this young or should I wait?

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I can't find any information on how long eggshells stay good. They all want you to let the membrane dry out but they don't give any time limit after that. If you ask the testing lab they will be able to tell you.

If you have to use a different type of DNA sexing I'd wait until the babies are older. For feather sexing you have to pluck a couple of feathers from the breast and they don't have feathers yet lol. For blood testing you have to collect a drop of blood from the toenail. The babies will have more blood in their bodies when they've grown to full size, so the sample will be a smaller percentage of the total supply.

A lot of vets charge high prices for DNA sexing. It's usually a lot cheaper if you collect the sample yourself and send it to a testing lab. But a lot of people don't have the nerve to collect the sample and would rather have someone else do it.

Yeah I don't know if I have the heart or stomach to pull their feathers once they come in lol I will just have to make these decisions when they get a bit older

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If Farrah is cinnamon pearl pied, then any cinnamon babies that you get could be either sex. With sex-linked mutations, you won't get any babies at all in that color if dad doesn't have the gene. If dad has the gene but mom isn't visual for that mutation, you can get girls in that color. If dad has the gene and mom IS visual for that mutation, you can get visual babies of both sexes.

It looks like one of the babies is definitely grey. I'm not sure about the other two. One of the older babies looks like a lighter shade than the one that looks dark, but it might just be the lighting. The littlest one doesn't have enough pins yet for me to guess. I have two breeding pairs. Both of them give me some grey chicks and some cinnamon chicks, and until the feathers start popping out of the pins I spend a lot of time wondering "is it grey or is it cinnamon".

Yes I noticed the same. The oldest baby has more grey and the middle baby has lighter colors almost like Farrah. It will always amaze me how much they change each day as they grow

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If the baby looks lighter to you too then it's likely that it's cinnamon. You'll know for sure in a few days.

You can almost see them getting bigger right before your eyes. Their growth rate amazes me, they go from fitting in an inch-long egg to being full size, feathered out and ready to fly in about a month.