Is The Albino Cockatiel For Real?
There's no argument that the albino cockatiel is an attractive little bird, and a somewhat rare one as well. It has all the features of a true albino, pure white feathers, red or pinkish eyes, a pink beak and pink claws. You can't get much more albino than that. Yet, it really isn't an albino.
The albino cockatiel is a mutation, but not a naturally occurring mutation, and strictly speaking, it is not a true albino. If you take two mutations, one of which has white feathers, normally black eyes, and black or grey feet and beak, and the other has feathers of another color, but has red eyes, claws, and beaks, there is a distinctive possibility, if you mate them, you will get what appears to be an albino, white feathers, red or pink feet, beak, and eyes.
Creating An Albino - To get an albino cockatiel through breeding, you need two mutations, a lutino and a white face. The lutino is one of the more common colors of cockatiel. The lutino's feathers are yellow white, it normally has orange cheek patches, and its eyes are red. The white face lacks the cheek patch and its feathers are pure white. Some white face cockatiel may have other body feather colors than white, or have a pattern of colors. The albino cockatiel is often called a Whiteface Lutino, a more accurate description. Female Whiteface Lutinos give away the fact they are not true albinos as they have barring underneath their tail feathers. The mutation linkages involved in creating the albino results in most of them being females.
Cockatiels make wonderful pets. They are smaller members of the parrot family, averaging about a foot in length (including the tail, which accounts for about half of its length), and weighing about a quarter of a pound. They are somewhat closely related to the cockatoo, a similar sized bird, and share the feature of having an erectile crest, which raises when the bird is startled or excited. One of the differences between the two is the cockatiel has a long tail whereas the cockatoo does not.
Cockatiels in the wild are almost uniformly gray. The brightly colored cockatiel are mutations, and the result of breeding, the albino cockatiel among them. Although many animals, including cockatiel, are bred with the idea of obtaining a breed that is above average in intelligence (the cockatiel is a very intelligent bird), and are also bred for hardiness, the wild grey cockatiel has remained the most intelligent and hardiest of all.
Like Whistling? - If you should want an albino cockatiel you might find them more expensive than most other cockatiel, although they would now be classified as somewhat scarce, rather than rare, as once was the case. A cockatiel can sometimes be taught to say a few words, or at least some of them can. It is usually the male that is best at talking, and as noted above, the vast majority of albino cockatiel are females. Don't despair however. The cockatiel's "thing" is not that of talking but whistling. A cockatiel can often be taught quite a repertoire of fairly lengthy tunes.
Cockatiel Care - Cockatiels require a fairly large cage, and should be allowed out on a daily basis whenever possible for some flight time around the house. Just make certain the windows and doors are closed. While a cockatiel may not make a conscious attempt to escape, if it does find itself outside, it can easily become confused and fly away in the process. Two cockatiel can be kept together, an obvious necessity if you wish to breed them, but if one has been a household member for some time, they will have to be kept apart, usually in separate rooms, for a time to avoid cockatiel fights or other problems. Once they have been "properly introduced", things tend to go well.