There are a lot of genes that influence color and I'm sure we don't know about most of them. There are primary mutations that have a dramatic impact on color all by themselves, and modifier genes that have a more subtle influence on normal color and also on some of the mutations. If you can get a good picture we can look at it, but my feeling is that she's probably fine. It's possible that some coloring from something else has gotten on her somehow, or that her feathers have simply gotten a bit faded with time. Cinnamon is photosensitive, meaning that it can fade pretty dramatically if the bird is out in the sun a lot, and feathers get dull from being indoors too. It's pretty common to see a tiel that looks blotchy because it has molted and replaced some feathers, and the new feathers are a darker shade than the old ones.



Millers sells some pellets at the birdmart but they tend to not have cockatiel size. I usually buy pellets online, it's the cheapest and easiest way to do it. The overall favorite in my flock is Zupreem Natural although it's possible that Lucy's personal favorite might be something different. I don't watch the birds closely enough to see which bird prefers which pellet.

Very interesting. I've seen cockatiels feathers brighten while taken outside, but I've never seen them fade. I've yet to actually take Lucy out in the sun yet, so they could be getting dull from staying indoors.

Lucy's in bed now, and I don't want to disturb her. I'll be sure to get the picture tomorrow.

So it seems either the nutri-berries, or covering her up at night, has worked somewhat (could be both). She's allowing me to actually pet her while inside the cage, which is something she doesn't usually do.

But for whatever reason, she still doesn't want to step up. Sure hope that will change soon enough. After dinner, I'll get a picture of her wings, so you can see the yellowing. It's barely noticeable. Hopefully it will show up on the camera.

If she's feeling hormonal she might want to stay in the cage because it's her "nest". It'll be good to discourage that kind of thinking, so it's desirable if you can use some kind of treats to coax her into stepping up and coming out.

Isn't she a little young to feel hormonal? She was born at the end of April, making her a little more than 4 months old.

Of course the yellowing doesn't show up in the pictures. I didn't even use flash.

Well, I actually got her to step up this time, after a few minutes seconds of her squawky fit (they're not really hissy fits, since she doesn't really hiss). She didn't bite either, which is good. Hopefully, it can continue like this, and she doesn't make me eat my words again.

She does like being on my laptop though Problem is, she likes to chew the rubber lines off the edge of the monitor, and when I want her off, she gets bitey. Any way I can stop this? Her bites have started getting harder than normal, and are actually starting to hurt a little. I feel like if I try to "butter her up" with scritches, it would just make her want to stay there more. It also seems like the more I try to stop her from eating the rubber, the more she wants to do it.

Have a spare perch nearby (or even a clean branch that you picked outside) and ask her to step up on that if she gets nippy with the hand. We don't want to train her to bite flesh, but biting a stick is OK.

I've had 5 month old babies mating with each other, and I've heard of them doing it as young as 3 months. She's starting to close in on the 5-month mark so it could be happening. In the wild the conditions wouldn't be favorable for breeding most of the time, which keeps the chicks from getting too revved up at a very early age. But indoor conditions are pretty much perfect all the time, with comfortable "weather" and lots of food.

I was about to ask if a pencil would work, but then I remembered that I use a pencil for target training.

I just realized that Lucy's food bowl is yellow. That might explain her wings. It's a bright yellow though, and not the same shade as the yellowing on her wings (which seems to be close to the yellow on her face). It's not worsening though, so it might be the photo-sensitivity of the Cinnamon mutation.

I got Poppy at 3 months old masturbating.

It didn't take him long to figure out what to do lol. Budgies mature even faster than cockatiels. Both species are eager breeders and will multiply like rabbits if they get the chance.