We traded off the 4 remaining baby Lovebirds to our local pet store, North Star Pet Centre, and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our soon-to-be newest addition to the household. Sue at North Star will be bringing in some new, young Cockatiels this week, and we'll be getting one to hopefully give our current cockatiel, Pearl, a friend.
We never did do testing to see if Pearl is a male or a female, but based on colouration, talking and whistling abilities, and Pearls tendency to do full displays and strut about, we both believe that Pearl is actually a male. We will attempt to choose a female friend, but whatever it is, we hope that Pearl will accept it as a buddy. I will post a picture of the new fid when we bring it home.
We have been struggling with Pearl for several weeks now to try to break a plucking habit that developed with the spring molt. As you can see from this picture , Pearl still has to wear the collar and neck brace we put together to make him unable to get at his neck and chest. Of course, it has also hampered Pearls ability to groom elsewhere, but we do remove it occasionally to let him catch up. We completely left it off 10 days ago for an entire 2 days before the gidget-bird started plucking his chest feathers off and chewing holes in the chest/neck skin until he was bleeding again. Needless to say, Pearl was NOT happy to be put back into the contraption, but it does the job.

I will try to think up a name for the new bird that isnt quite so male/female oriented in case it turns out to be another male; I have been told numerous times that the name Pearl is pretty feminine for a guy-bird. Anyhow, hopefully a new friend for Pearl, be it male or female, will distract him enough to stop him from plucking himself. We realize it could be several months before they can be roommates instead of just neighbours (if ever), but having another bird in the house will be fun, whatever it is called and wherever it is housed!