Keeping Your Exhibition Cockatiels Current and Winning
By Keith Jennings

Selective breeding management is a must when showing cockatiels.  No one can keep every Cockatiel they have ever bred.

The object in breeding cockatiels for exhibition is winning of course!  So when pairing up your birds the ultimate goal should always be to produce better offspring than the parents are.  If you do indeed accomplish this, then the parents themselves have ust become passse (outdated) to your breeding program.  Lets say a pair you put together has produced 4 champion offspring for you.  What do you do next?  You may want to raise chicks out of that pair for one more season.  But ask yourself, “How many siblings can I really use? “  Yes, you can sell some, but it is probably already time to move on.  Either remate the parents, each to another new and different mate, or you may want to discard (sell) them altogether.  The old adage “Out with the old and in with the new” applies here more often than not.   

You’d be surprised how many times I am contacted by someone.  Who is telling me they have some of my cockatiels (6J bloodlines) and would like to know, either how to pair the birds up, or do I have a Cockatiel to mate to the bird they have available for sale.  Usually my response is the same.  How old is your bird of mine?  If this bird is more than 3-4 years old I usually have no answer for them.   Because it’s already, yiou guessed it, OUTDATED for show breeding.  Unless you have a Cockatiel that’s way advanced in show quality, style and conformation, with a dominate gene pool behind it, that Cockatiel will become outdated in 2-3 years at best.  So sell that old pair, even though they did produce 3-4 champions for you 2-3 years ago.  Introduce their champion offspring into your breeding program instead!

In order to remain on TOP and CURRENT on today’s ever so changing world of the exhibition Cockatiel.  Your breeding stock needs to be able to complete in and on TODAY’S show bench.  If you are in question of this, take your breeding stock to some shows.  Give them some honest competition and see how they hold up.  If they can’t place on the top bench, then how can you expect their offspring to?  Those who understand and practice this concept, WIN.  Its that simple!

After all, HOW BAD DO YOU WANT TO WIN?