Expert: Cynthia Kiesewetter - 9/16/2008

Question
My husband and I have never had a bird until June 4 when we found a beautiful cockatiel had flown into our barn. He had obviously been on the "lam" for some time and was thin and hungry. Needless to say, here it is 3 months later and we love our baby and have bought him a beautiful, big cage. We have searched online to find out what color classification he is but he doesn't seem to fit exactly into any of the mutations we've been able to find. How can we make an accurate determination of his color classification? Also, what can we do about the feather dust. He gets sprayed daily but the "dust" has not diminished.

Answer
Terri,

If you respond to this and include a good, high resolution picture of your cockatiel, I will attempt to classify him for you.

Regarding the feather dust, there really isn't much you can do other than daily mistings.  He may be going through a molt right now, which is causing him to give off a bit more "dust" (which is really the result of preening the feathers of the keratin sheathing).

Looking forward to seeing the picture!

Cindy