Normal grey: Normal grey is the original color of a cockatiel. They are almost impossible to find nowadays with all of the splits to certain other mutations. The males will have a bright yellow face like the pictured bird below and the females will have a grey face. The females also carry the barred tail feathers that the males molt out after their first feathered molt.
Notice the bright circular cheeks and dark color
female
RECESSIVE MUTATIONS:PIEDOne of the most commonly found, and first mutations discovered was the Pied mutation. The general definition of the pied mutation is: Randomly placed feathers that lack any dark pigments(melanin) but keep the lighter pigments.
The pied mutation is found in almost all breeds or species of birds and does not play by any of the mutation rules. The feathers can be completely randomly placed at any given place on the bird. The Pied mutation will often cause the bird to grow in new pied feathers and lose some old ones. a pied bird can look one way when you first get it, and change within a few years.
Here is a picture of my pied bird Wendy when i first got her, and 2 years later to date. Not a significant change, but she can be used as a simple example
There are four classifications of pied, Light pied, Pied, and Heavily pied and Clear Pied. Light pied is where the bird has AT LEAST one or two flight feathers that are considered 'clear'(clear means the pied feathers, lacking melanin pigment), Pied or Regular Pied means the bird has multiple clear flights on each wing as well as minimal pied body feathers(Wendy in the example is a regular pied) Heavily pied is when the bird's majority of feathers are clear, or pied feathers leaving 25% regular feathers and 75% pied feathers. Lastly, Clear pied is when the bird has less then 2 or 3 dark feathers left on the body.
WhitefaceThe whiteface mutation completely takes out any yellow pigments in a cockatiel's body. It does the exact same thing as Lutino but opposite(Lutino will be explained later) The Whiteface males will have a completely white face, hence the name, with NO cheek patch and NO yellow pigment on the body whatsoever. The female will be just like a normal grey female but lacks the cheek patch and yellow pigments in the body.
PASTEL FACE:
Pastel face is co-dominant to the whiteface mutation. you can produce both whiteface chicks and pastel face chicks if you pair a pastelface to a whiteface. It dilutes the face leaving a nice even pastel color to it as well as any other deep yellow colors.
SEX LINKED MUTATIONS:: ONLY MALES CAN BE SPLIT TO SEX LINKED MUTATIONS
PEARL: Pearl is one of the most interesting mutations. it causes spotted like patterns throughout the feathers taking only parts of the melanin. The males once matured and molted will lose all of their pearls and they can be replaced by what is known as 'ghost pearls; which leave pearl like markings in a very light pattern throughout the male's back.(i am always looking for pictures! of course i can request use of pictures but until then, i can only get a male pearl, split to whiteface, and split to pied as well as what i have, pied and normal grey.)
The females will have patterned spots throughout their body,especially on the wings, and often will have scalloping in the chest/abdomen area. The tail feathers will be mostly yellow with a black vein down the middle.
LUTINO Lutino takes all dark pigment(melanin) out of the bird's feathers. The Lutino mutation is explained by a completely yellow and white bird with an orange cheek patch and wine colored eyes. People often confuse clear pied cockatiels with Lutino cockatiels do to the fact of their alike coloring, but the true way to tell if your bird is a Lutino cockatiel is to shine a light in the eye. if the eye is a brown color then your cockatiel is likely a clear pied. if the eye is a deep or bright red/wine color, then the bird is Lutino.
CINNAMONCinnamon is a diluting factor mutation. The main change with Cinnamon is that you result in a very diluted grey cockatiel, sometimes resulting in brown tones.
DOMINANT: Dominant mutations can be carried by one or both parents, either resulting in chicks of the mutation of a single or both parents. Both parents are not needed for chicks to be the mutation. There are two types of dominants, Single factor, and Double factor. Single factor is when only one parent carries the mutation and passes it to the chick, the chick is a single factor. The Single factor dominant chick will then produce 50% chicks with the same dominant mutation, and 50% normal or the mutation of the other parent. Double factor is when both parents carry the dominant gene. 100% of the chicks should carry the gene and can now pass the gene to 100% of their own chicks. the 3rd generation of chicks will then become single factor unless the parent was paired with another of the same dominant mutation.
Dominant Yellow cheek:
A yellow cheek mutation causes the cheeks to be diluted to a yellow color sometimes resulting in a yellow or very light orange cheek.
Dominant Silver:
This is another diluting factor in a cockatiel. It turns the feathers a beautiful powdery grey color. Double factor dominant silvers usually become much lighter(in the males case) then the single factor.
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