This was the  31st of March 1999, we were still  hand feeding Pearl and Sunny, at 10 weeks old. Some people would frown at the thought, but as long as they want to be fed we will feed them.

Here they are. these babies are from Shalimar and Spaz. Shalimar is a 3 year old  normal  gray female and we know nothing about her history. Spaz is the son of Pete and Charley. He is 6 years old. he is a gray split to lutino and pied and pearl and maybe part  comedian.

We do like the sense of beauty of the exotic and different colors and varied color schemes of the many different color mutations of the cockatiel.

But you have to admit there is something special about the normal gray cockatiel.

It is sort of like "ya gotta dance with the one that brought you to the party".

Also there is another reason for keeping these  beauties.  They do help to stabilize the gene pool. When you are attempting to breed to get a specific color mutation, you have to start with clean genes. And that folks is the "normal gray.

So in all reality there is a method to our madness. Not really as we have stated before these birds are so easy to fall in love with it doesn't matter what color feathers they are wearing.