Cinnamon in the Turquoise Parakeet
Cinnamon is a sex-linked recessive mutation that lightens the dark eumelanin pigment in the feathers from near-black to a warm cinnamon-brown, without touching the yellow/red (psittacofulvin) or structural blue pigments that give the Turquoise Parakeet its green and turquoise. Because it sits on the Z chromosome, cocks can be split for Cinnamon and show no visible sign of it, but hens cannot — a hen is either wild-type or visibly Cinnamon, with nothing in between.
What is the Cinnamon mutation?
In this calculator's reference data, Cinnamon (cin) is logged as a sex-linked recessive locus in the melanin category, producing "brownish eumelanin" — the same classification used across most parrot species that carry a Cinnamon mutation, including budgerigars, cockatiels, and lovebirds. It's one of the most consistently documented mutations in psittacine genetics, and the underlying biology is well understood even where Turquoise-Parakeet-specific literature is thin.
How it works, in plain terms
Feather color in the Turquoise Parakeet comes from three separate ingredients layered on top of each other: a dark eumelanin pigment (normally oxidised to a near-black or dark grey), red/yellow psittacofulvin pigments, and a structural blue effect created by the physical structure of the feather barbs. Green plumage is simply yellow psittacofulvin showing through structural blue, with dark eumelanin providing shading and edging.
The Cinnamon mutation slows the enzymatic step that oxidises eumelanin to its full dark shade, so it stays a lighter, warmer brown instead. It does not touch the yellow/red or structural-blue layers at all — which is why a Cinnamon bird still looks recognisably green and turquoise, just softer, with the areas that would normally be near-black (primary flights, tail, eye) showing warm brown instead.
Sex-linked inheritance, explained
Neophema, like all parrots, use a Z/W sex chromosome system: cocks are ZZ (two copies of every Z-linked gene) and hens are ZW (only one copy). Cinnamon sits on the Z chromosome, so the two sexes inherit it differently:
- Cocks (ZZ) can be Normal, split for Cinnamon (carrying one copy, showing no visible trace of it), or visually Cinnamon (two copies).
- Hens (ZW) only have one Z chromosome, so there's no "split" state possible — a hen is either wild-type or visually Cinnamon, full stop.
A practical consequence: pair a visual Cinnamon cock (two Cinnamon Z's) with a normal hen. Every son gets one Z from each parent — his father's Cinnamon Z and his mother's non-Cinnamon Z — so every son comes out split for Cinnamon, never visual. Every daughter's only Z always comes from her father, so every daughter comes out visually Cinnamon. That split-sons / visual-daughters pattern is the classic giveaway breeders use to spot a sex-linked trait.
Genotype → phenotype
| Sex | Genotype | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| Cock | Z⁺ / Z⁺ | Normal |
| Cock | Z⁺ / Zᶜⁱⁿ | Normal — split for Cinnamon |
| Cock | Zᶜⁱⁿ / Zᶜⁱⁿ | Visual Cinnamon |
| Hen | Z⁺ / W | Normal |
| Hen | Zᶜⁱⁿ / W | Visual Cinnamon |
Sources & honesty note
The inheritance type, symbol, and category for Cinnamon in Neophema Pulchella come from this calculator's own compiled reference library, cross-checked against "A Guide to Neophema and Neopsephotus Genera and their Mutations" by Alain Campagne (ABK Publications) — the same book excerpted in this project's own Resources library. The plain-language explanation of eumelanin oxidation and pigment layering above is general psittacine mutation biology, consistent across Cinnamon mutations in related species; it has not yet been verified line-by-line against Neophema-pulchella-specific photographs or text, so treat visual descriptions as a reasonable general guide rather than a breed standard. See the full references page for this project's other sources.