Its quite possible Rocko may have a little Lutino in him I actually think one of his parents was Lutino.

If Rocko is a boy and had a lutino parent then he is definitely split to lutino. Do you know which parent it was? It makes a difference, because all the daughters of a lutino cock will be visual lutino. If Rocko had a lutino dad, he is definitely a boy since he is NOT visual lutino. If it was his mother Rocko could be either sex.

A heater isn't necessary. If it's really cold it would be desirable to wait a few weeks until the weather is warmer. The days will be longer then too so your birds will be more motivated to breed at that time.

You do need nesting material in the box. The best material is aspen or pine wood shavings (not cedar, and not sawdust). Our nestbox article has more information: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... boxes.html

100% pine shavings is my favorite choice of bedding. You can buy the ones for hamsters if you want. It's the same thing. Just make sure you don't get cedar since it has a strong sent which is harmful to birds.

Here is a quote from Carolyn's nestbox article



There is mote information on nest box material in the full article here: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... boxes.html

Great Carolyn, you beat me to it!

We have aspen shavings I think its lemon scented though and I am assuming thats bad? I don't know exactly if one of his parents was Lutino but it is possible and so im assuming most of the Lutino babies they get in then are girls so then I guess the father would have been lutino.Its not too cold at night just when you walk in the room you feel a little chill after changing of temperature lol.If Rocko had lutino daughters would they have red eyes? The days are already starting to get longer and as soon as I do start breeding it will probably be fully Spring lol.

What is a colander and how do I know if it has too much dust?

A colander is a bowl with holes in it. It's designed for washing food or draining the water out of it. The basic idea is to put the food in the bowl, and all the water runs out the bottom. There are different types but here are a couple of examples:





I tried to use a colander once to get the dust out of the shavings and it was a big pain in the butt. It's a lot easier to get a clean brand in the first place. If a dust cloud rises up when you pour the shavings into the nest, it's got too much dust in it. I like Kaytee brand shavings because I know they'll be nice and clean. I don't know what brands you have available in Ireland, but maybe the pet shop can advise on which ones are cleanest.

The shavings will have a natural wood smell, but there shouldn't be any other scents that have been added to it.

If Rocko is split to lutino then all the lutino babies you get will be girls, and yes, they will have red eyes. You can see the difference in eye color as soon as they hatch, even though their eyes haven't opened yet. Normal babies have big dark orbs, and the eye area of lutino babies is the same color as the rest of their skin. It almost looks like they don't have eyes. Sometimes cinnamon babies will have eyes as red as a lutino when they hatch, but in this case the eyes get darker after a few days so you'll soon learn the difference.

The two biggest chicks in this picture are one normal baby and one lutino. You can see the difference in eye color.

Then I have a Colander lol I never actually knew what it was called though lol.We have Kaytee so ill buy that then non scented thanks.What about Lutino babies with dark eyes how do they have dark eyes?

Lutino babies don't have dark eyes! They always have red eyes. There are a few rare mutations that also have red eyes, like fallow and recessive silver, but you aren't likely to get any of those. Pretty much everything else has dark eyes.

Cinnamon babies have the most variation in eye color at the time they hatch. Usually they have purplish eyes that are called "plum colored". But they can also have eyes that are as dark as a normal chick or eyes that are as red as a lutino. But when a cinnamon chick hatches out with really red eyes the color gets darker after a few days. There have been a lot of people who thought they had a lutino chick, and then got confused when they looked in the nestbox a few days later and saw the same number of chicks but none of them had red eyes.

My cinnamon chicks are all born with eyes as dark as a normal. Maybe I just have bad eyes, but I have never been able to tell the difference between the cinnamon chicks and the normal chicks until they got their feathers in.