Cockatiels have two pigments that cause color in them: melatonin causes the gray, and lipochrome causes yellow and orange. Peeper (right) was a typically colored cockatiel (called gray), and posessed both melatonin and lipochrome.
Lutino (like Gabe) is a mutation where they don't have the melatonin, kinda a "half-albino," so anywhere they would've been gray is white instead, and his eyes are red (even without the flash) instead of brown. They still have the lipochrome so retain the yellow head and tail, and orange cheeks.
Whitefaces (left) do have the melatonin so the have gray backs and sides, but don't have the lipochrome so their heads are pure white.
In order to get a true albino, they need to crossbreed the lutinos and whitefaces to get an even more mutated bird without either lipochrome or melatonin.
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timeasmymeasure
More info than you ever wanted about colorations in 'tiels...
Date: 2006-10-15 02:45 am (UTC)Lutino (like Gabe) is a mutation where they don't have the melatonin, kinda a "half-albino," so anywhere they would've been gray is white instead, and his eyes are red (even without the flash) instead of brown. They still have the lipochrome so retain the yellow head and tail, and orange cheeks.
In order to get a true albino, they need to crossbreed the lutinos and whitefaces to get an even more mutated bird without either lipochrome or melatonin.
More coloration info.
Hm, I may just need to post this elsewhere...