Ino (Lutino) in the Turquoise Parakeet
Ino is a sex-linked recessive mutation that removes nearly all melanin — the dark pigment — from feathers, eyes, and skin. In the green-based Turquoise Parakeet this produces Lutino: a bright yellow bird with red or pink eyes, since without melanin there's nothing left to darken the eye and the underlying blood vessels show through. Like Cinnamon and Opaline, it's Z-linked: cocks can be split invisibly, hens cannot.
What is the Ino mutation?
Ino is logged in this calculator's reference data as a sex-linked recessive melanin mutation, producing a phenotype labelled Lutino. It's one of the most consistently documented mutations across parrot species — Ino-family mutations (Lutino on a green base, Albino on a blue base) appear in budgerigars, cockatiels, ringnecks, and many others, and recent genetic research has traced this mutation family to changes in the SLC45A2 gene, which is directly responsible for melanin transport in feathers across multiple parrot species.
How it works, in plain terms
Ino removes essentially all eumelanin (the dark brown-black pigment) from the feathers, eyes, skin, and feet. With melanin gone, the yellow/red psittacofulvin pigment layer is left to dominate on its own — since the Turquoise Parakeet is a green-series bird (not a blue series), the result is a vivid, even yellow rather than the pure white "Albino" look seen in blue-series species that lack yellow pigment entirely. The eyes also lose their dark pigment, so they appear red or pink — that's blood vessels showing through the now translucent iris and retina, not a separate red pigment.
Sex-linked inheritance, explained
Ino sits on the Z chromosome, so cocks (ZZ) and hens (ZW) inherit it differently:
- Cocks (ZZ) can be Normal, split for Ino (carrying one copy, invisible), or visually Lutino (two copies).
- Hens (ZW) have only one Z chromosome, so there's no "split" state — a hen is either wild-type or visually Lutino.
Genotype → phenotype
| Sex | Genotype | Appearance |
|---|---|---|
| Cock | Z⁺ / Z⁺ | Normal |
| Cock | Z⁺ / Zⁱⁿᵒ | Normal — split for Ino |
| Cock | Zⁱⁿᵒ / Zⁱⁿᵒ | Visual Lutino |
| Hen | Z⁺ / W | Normal |
| Hen | Zⁱⁿᵒ / W | Visual Lutino |
Sources & honesty note
The inheritance type, symbol, and category for Ino in Neophema Pulchella come from this calculator's own compiled reference library. The plain-language explanation of melanin loss and the SLC45A2 gene above draws on published cross-species parrot genetics research; it has not been verified line-by-line against Neophema-pulchella-specific photographs. See the full references page for this project's other sources.