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bostonbudgie wrote:Lutino all have a bald spot.

None of my lutinos had, or has a bald spot. I thought that bald spots you are talking about in lutinos are from too much inbreeding.

Madame Sun Moon (probably not the proper way to identify her, but I don't know her own name ) created lutino cockatiels by inbreeding. That's how all but normal grays have been developed. One of my lutinos has a large bald patch, while the other has none.

Here is an article that explains how lutinos came to be. I don't know the author, so cannot vouch for the accuracy of her information.

Lutino Cockatiels -- By Peggy Newbury 1999

"COCKATIELS ARE MORE FUN" Have Fun with Blondes, Basic Blondes, Warm Blondes, Milk Chocolate Blondes, Iced Blondes, Platinum Blondes, Silver Blondes, Iced Coffee Blondes, Your Responsibilities (to any Blonde) When overwhelming interest in a particular species of bird, or mutations within that species, wanes, it is time to

GET BACK TO BASICS

Our Lutino Cockatiel mutation has always been one of the most beautiful of aviary parrots. When it first appeared it was considered a swan among the ordinary grey plumage of the Normal Cockatiel. It was called 'Albino', emphasis on the 'bi' sound, since it first appeared in the United States. It was never a pure white bird and therefore this name was incorrect, as calmer heads have always commented. The mutation (or freak of nature) acts to delete ALL melanin, by definition the grey colouring or pigmentation, from the surface areas of the bird. ALL areas are affected, the feathers, feet, toenails, skin, beak, cere and eyes lose grey,

THE BASIC BLONDE COCKATIEL

The resulting attractive shades of cream, ivory, gold, yellow, orange and any other fanciful description including primrose and buttercup have always been lurking under the effective camouflage tones of dove grey through to charcoal. The lipochromes (or psittacines, coined by George Smith, U.K.) are not enhanced, but revealed. These are the yellow tones.

LUTINO

From Florida, where this fortunate accident of breeding occurred, Mrs. Moon spread her lovely moonbeams throughout the world as albinos. Because knowledge of genetic inheritance was virtually nil, the cock birds were not used appropriately. Inbreeding, or line breeding, was commonly used to produce the light coloured birds and genetic faults were firmly fixed. Some of these faults we are still trying to eradicate.

Various conformation faults are encountered in any line bred stock that has not been ruthlessly culled. The most obvious fault still prevalent in the Lutino is a bald spot at the top of the head behind and in the center of the crest and sometimes running down the back of the head as large as a fingerprint. Although other mutations occasionally have thin feathering or bald spots, this fault seems to be primarily a Lutino fault.

All cockatoos have a bald area directly behind their crests. Some are more visible than others. I believe that the type of crest influences the extent of light feathering or baldness. Cockatiels are the littlest cockatoo and a lesser area of feathering on their heads is a natural part of the species. However, normal Cockatiels USUALLY have full pin feathering on the head area ' directly behind their crests, but not always. Lutino Cockatiels seldom have full pin feathering in this area BUT it can be found!

AND-. NO, NO, NO your lovely Lutino will not grow feathers on top of its head as it gets older! If pin feathers are not visible on the heads of chicks before they fledge pin feathers will never appear, Other feathers may grow long enough to fold over and cover this thin or bald area.

I suggest NEVER using Lutino Cockatiels for breeding unless some pin feathering is evident as a chick. I believe that eradication of baldness in this mutation is a simple matter of selective breeding, one of the most basic tenets in any type of breeding. The BEST stock available paired with the BEST stock available results in some offspring that are BETTER than the parent birds. Generation after generation of bird paired in this way will result in perfectly head feathered birds.

However, at the same time all other tenets of desirable breeding techniques must be considered. Freakatiels with drooping wings, short fat legs or stubby tails will not improve our hobby. While we strive for good sized birds - within the standard - extra large or tiny birds with beautifully feathered heads will not be rewarded on your show bench or succeed in a breeding plan.

Certainly the best way to produce ideal Lutinos is to mate Best feathered heads with Best feathered heads, as a geneticist in Perth advised us long ago. This is much easier said in theory than done in our aviaries. First you find (or breed) your birds with a well feathered head. This bird must also have most or all of the other attributes for a good selective breeding program.

I have truthfully never bred a Lutino to a Lutino. I have always believed that a Lutino cock to a normal hen and a split cock to a Lutino hen produces better coloured and better feathered birds. Furthermore, the most beautiful mutations I ever produced are from 2 splits, or a split cock with a normal hen. I have never bred an inferior mutation from this type of mating. Since I have been involved in developing several mutations I have never devoted the space to fully develop the Lutino to my satisfaction.

When one tries to establish a mutation many birds must be kept - just in case - and this involves much space devoted to birds that might be fairly unproductive for a minimum of 5 years. And this is only if all goes perfectly to plan and other like minded breeders help out with some aviary space!

Certainly, with the Lutino firmly established, and major improvement the goal, much less space need be devoted to selective breeding and the culled birds can be sold to the pet trade.

At this moment, even with the personal challenges I have had since 1997, I have 3 large flights devoted to the Spangle mutation, plus 2 individual breeding aviaries. At least 50 birds carry this variation. I have been working on this mutation since 1984. Each year I learn something else about this unusual variety. I don't give up easily. This sort of stubbornness is required to strive towards perfection in any mutation. Development does not usually suit those who see breeding Cockatiels as a way of making money. Breeders with business attitudes sensibly profit from the long, boring pursuit of perfection by people like me. Perfection is never achievable. If it is achieved, perhaps our standards have not been high enough!

Lutino birds have been observed in our wild flocks and some have made their way into Australian aviaries. I would love to know if birds taken directly from the wild have any sort of baldness. Certainly these birds would not have any genes from the original moonbeams.

The Lutino mutation is a simple sex linked mutation. All directions for colour change are carried on one or both of the genes which direct the gender of the bird. Once this concept is firm in your mind you can dazzle new breeders with any computation of sex linked mutations such as Cinnamon, Platinum. and Yellowface. Adding the sex linked pattern mutation of pearl results in the double sex linked mutation of Lutino-Pearl, understandably, but incorrectly sometimes called Golden Pearl. Directions for the pattern and directions for the melanin deletion are carried on each gene used for sex determination by the cockbird. Perhaps this concept might be better understood if we called it gender linked mutation. Entirely too much sex and not enough gender to remember the issue at hand.

ParrontPlus, that's a great article you found! Many do believe that it's not a good idea to breed lutino to lutino as it'll result in inferior birds... the idea of breeding a lutino with a cockatiel with a good feathered head is also a good idea as this technique has been used to try and eliminate the bald spot seen in lutino mutations. However, it's still a work in process as we are still finding bald lutinos...

The issue arrives however when a regular owner gets his birds from the petstore (those birds culled from the aviary, or birds "inferior" to the breeders standard of what they want in a cockateil) and then breeds those birds, we have the issue of "inferior" birds being spread around again.

Hopefully as time goes on, we'll see the bald spot completely eradicated from the future cockatiels.