Bennie

[CamCamPup33]

laid an egg! Im still in shock! LOL.

:eek: :eek:

[flamepony12]

.....aaaaaaaahhhhh

-dies-

hahahahaha. woww xD well.. GUESS HE'S A BONNIE NOW O_O;

can we have pictures then.. please? c:

[Logan]

Uh oh!!!!!!!! :o :o :o

Sorry Bennie! You have to be the most handsome female cockatiel I've ever seen!!!!! :p

Sorry, Amber! All we could do was guess!

[Chilli]

Wow.. that must have been surprising!
Your boy turned into a girl! Or rather finally decided to proove to you all that she was, infact, a girl all along. =D

[Logan]

I'm still sitting here, scratching my head. That little Bennie sure surprised us all!!!!! :eek:

[Pam]

Logan, surely you couldn't have been mistaken. She must have taken Bennie (I mean, ahem,....Bonnie.....) for a sex change operation! :p :p

[My Peanuts]

LOL, Bennie fooled everyone!

I have one like that. One of my new guys, Spanky, (rescuer named her and I kept it) I was petting Spanky and she put her butt up in the air and starting making female mating noises! :D I thought Spanky was a boy! lol! :p

[K9karen]

LOL! Who wudda thunk? Oops.. a name change is in order!
Ya know, theres a medical facility that determines the sex of a bird. I forgot the name..they advertise on the back of Dog Fancy (and I guess all those magazines) and say they can determine the sex and background etc.. So when I emailed them, they said they only can do it for birds. I thought they'd be able to determine what breed mix Logan is, but they can't yet (working on it)

[Argranade]

Lol yes it can be very hard to tell the sex of a bird... ;) :D

[Logan]

What is so strange is that Bennie looks EXACTLY like his daddy, Roger. Remember, he was the first to hatch and ways bigger and much more animated that his so called sisters! LOL!!!!!

Poor Amber. At least you know that there will be no babies, right???? But to think that after all this time (2 years), we thought Bennie was a real man..................guess not, unless boys can lay eggs!!!! :o

[Zippy]

LOL that had to be a big surpise
If Sweet P.ever lays an egg :o
we think he is a boy

[CamCamPup33]

LOL! Goodness, you can only imagine my face! My moms expression was pretty priceless too.. :D

Bennie does look like a male though, she has really bright features, (her cheeks) and isn't it said that females have sort of dull colored features? Also, Bennis neverrrr stays quiet! She's sooo vocal!

I was wondering why she was so quiet, because usually when she's in his cage, and im in the room, she'll let me know she wants out. But this time, she didn't make a sound, i was sort of concered, lol. Soo, i went over to her cage, and lifted up the sheet, and there she was on the bottom of the cage sitting all puffy looking, like she was preening herself. She was veryyy protective at first, but she eventually moved a bit and i saw it.

SHE* (i have to get used to that, LOL) hasn't been in contact with any males, so it's not fertile, but i was reading you're supposed to take it away after a week? In my cockatiels for dummies (I live by that thing!) book it says if i take it away now, she'll go into "egg laying mode" and lay a clutch of eggs. Is this true?

I'll have to take some pictures of her with it today, so i'll get those posted soon! :)

[I had to go through there and fix the "he's" to "she's"] LOL

[BitsyNaceyDog]

That's happened to me twice. It's quite a shock, isn't it.

One of the times was with my dove, Flutters. She was 4 years old before she laid an egg. That was last summer and she hasn't laid any since. It's hard to break a habbit so I usually still refer to her as a boy.

The other time was with my lovebird, Romi, who used to be Romeo. I had a pair of rescued lovebirds named Romeo and Juliet. Juliet had laid eggs several times, but Romeo never had. Juliet died leaving Romeo by himself. Not too long after Juliet died (a few weeks, if I remember correctly) I found Romeo sitting on an egg. It just happed to be April Fool's day and I was certain that my husband was playing a joke on me. It took him awhile to convince me that he wasn't. She's laid several eggs since then.

[Vermontcat]

Wow!
Bennie girl sure fooled us all didn't she?

Logan, didn't you adopt out Bennie's sisters together to the same home?
Maybe you should check up on them to see if they have any surprises of their own.

[My Peanuts]

Amber, I don't know how much you know about this, but make sure Bennie has plenty of calcium if she doesn't already. Also do not take the egg out for a while. Bennie will keep replacing the egg and too much egg production will be hard on her body.

BTW, I had a female friend in high school whose nickname was Bennie, so I say keep it the same :)

[Logan]

Wow!
Bennie girl sure fooled us all didn't she?

Logan, didn't you adopt out Bennie's sisters together to the same home?
Maybe you should check up on them to see if they have any surprises of their own.

Zoe, I thought you knew...........oh yes, they have created two surprises (babies) as a matter of fact. The two little "girls", who were so quiet and pale in comparison to Bennie, are not two girls, but a girl and a boy. I guess I'm a great grandmother at this point, but my friend, Judy, who adopted them, will not allow this to happen again. One of the newest babies went to another home and the other stayed with her. Apparently, this is not too unusual in the world of Cockatiels and everyone who we talked to supported her just letting the eggs go. 2 out of 6 hatched. :p

Amber, let the egg stay for a while. If Bennie is anything like her (boy that sounds weird to say) mom, sh ewill keep on laying them and taking it away will just make her lay more. She'll ignore it, eventually, then you can take it off. Knowing it isn't fertile, it won't hurt a thing to just leave it there.

Is Bennie nesting??

[Giselle]

LOL! I think Bennie is a very cute female name!


LOL! Who wudda thunk? Oops.. a name change is in order!
Ya know, theres a medical facility that determines the sex of a bird. I forgot the name..they advertise on the back of Dog Fancy (and I guess all those magazines) and say they can determine the sex and background etc.. So when I emailed them, they said they only can do it for birds. I thought they'd be able to determine what breed mix Logan is, but they can't yet (working on it)

They take a feather or blood sample and test it. I hate to be blunt, but I'm pretty sure it's just called "avian sexing" LOL. You can also perform surgery to determine the gender of an exotic parrot, but many people find it invasive and unnecessary. If you have a deep understanding of cockatiel mutations and you know the lineage of the chicks, a chick's mutation can sometimes determine what gender it is. I'm not helpful with cockatiel mutations, but if you ever need a budgie sexed .. ;)

[Logan]

Amber, tonight, when Helen got home from practice, I said, "Bennie layed an egg" and didn't say anything else. She waited for a second, then said "oh no, here we go again". She thought I said Milly layed an egg! LOL!!!!! I said, "no, Helen, it was Bennie". And she immediately said "our Bennie?"! :) Yep!!!!! She couldn't believe it, either, and even asked me if male birds could lay eggs!!! Ha Ha!!!!! I think we were all convinced that Bennie was a boy, especially because of his coloring, size and personality!

Logan

[My Peanuts]

This has got me thinking about my Riley. I thought Riley was a boy, now I think she's a girl, but she looks like Roger! This is confusing. Maybe it's time to go to the vet for DNA sexing :p

[lute]

haha! that's how we found out that Lucy was a Lucky.LOL

[Logan]

One thing is for sure, Diana, and that is that you can't be sure unless you do that DNA test. :eek: I told Amber and Judy, when they adopted these babies, that I had no positive information and that I was judging by color and personality. I guess we just figured out that with immature birds, that is not the way to go! LOL!!!!

Logan

[sandragonfly]

oh dear bennia! yep, a shock to me too.. :o

will baybi be next?? :p now I know .. next time I think it's a male.. think girl!!!! :D :D

amber, are you gonna keep the name, right?

[chrissycat21]

Wow! That was pretty unexpected!

My uncle's cockatiel, Mikey, waited until she was 18 years old to lay an egg. :eek:

(We need more pictures of Bennie soon...I've missed seeing her!)

[animal_rescue]

OMG!! Hahahahahahahahahaha *breaths* I so wish I could have been there to see that.

LOL ok Bennie you sweet little girl, what other surprises do you got? :D

[CamCamPup33]

All she'll do is sit at the bottom of her cage with them!

I say them, because theres another one.
Making the grand total, 2! LOL.

Im going to keep the name Bennie. She knows it already, so i'll just keep it as it is :)

Pictures will definitely be up soon! :D

[Vermontcat]

Zoe, I thought you knew...........oh yes, they have created two surprises (babies) as a matter of fact. The two little "girls", who were so quiet and pale in comparison to Bennie, are not two girls, but a girl and a boy. I guess I'm a great grandmother at this point, but my friend, Judy, who adopted them, will not allow this to happen again. One of the newest babies went to another home and the other stayed with her. Apparently, this is not too unusual in the world of Cockatiels and everyone who we talked to supported her just letting the eggs go. 2 out of 6 hatched. :p

Amber, let the egg stay for a while. If Bennie is anything like her (boy that sounds weird to say) mom, sh ewill keep on laying them and taking it away will just make her lay more. She'll ignore it, eventually, then you can take it off. Knowing it isn't fertile, it won't hurt a thing to just leave it there.

Is Bennie nesting??


Logan, I must have missed that Bennie's siblings also laid eggs and raised a couple of babies! Was that this summer or last summer that they had them?

CamCamPup, I would love to see some new photos of Bennie and her eggs if you have them. :)

[Alasse]

Opppsss he, errrr she tricked ya :D

[Logan]

I think it was earlier this year, Zoe. I get all confused! :o One baby stayed with Judy (she "thinks" it is a boy) and the other, Merry, went to a new home.

Any update, Amber? I hope Bennie has stopped at two eggs. Their personalities seem to change when they are guarding eggs. I notice it with Roger and Milly and I'm always so glad when it is over!

Logan

[CamCamPup33]

Bennie now has three. I really hope she's stopped. I get suprised each time i let him out of his cage, hehe.

Here's a picture.
The third one is under her stomach.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/amberisl0ve/bennnn.jpg

[jesse_3]

Wow, I am no bird expert, but it sounds like Bennie was a sure shocker for you! She probably decided that you needed to know that he was a SHE. lol, I love the name Bennie for a girl, it is really cute!

[Logan]

Awwwwww, Amber. Our Bennie looks so sweet with her little eggs. :)

[momoffuzzyfaces]

:eek: WOW! How did I miss???

Bennie you little stinker you!!! You sure fooled the lot of us didn't you???

Hope you are out of the egg laying mood now, sweetie!!! :D

[Cookiebaker]

Yikes! what a surprise!! :eek: How funny! :D

Amber, I have heard that you can purchase fake eggs that look real, and put them in the bottom of the cage. That way, the bird thinks that they laid a real one, and will sit on it, and not lay anymore. I don't know, but if she keeps laying them and you get concerned, that might be something to look into.