Nymphicus Hollandicus

Ninfa nymphs or cockatoos, also known as Carolinas, Nymphicus Hollandicus is a psittaciform bird of the Cockatoo Family (Cockatoo) which is considered the smallest of the cockatoos.

It comes from Australia and is a domestic bird which is usually affectionate, docile, little noisy, elegant and easy to educate (if they are manually raised since they are young, they tend to be very social and attached to their owners). Nymphs are usually gregarious animals, so they like to live in pairs, either of their specific species or not because they do not feel alone.

They have an erectile crest and have long feathers in their tails. Its plumage is generally gray with yellow crest, and orange spots on the «cheeks.» Males have more vivid colors than females. There are birds with more colors, like pearls, Greens, Lutino, Albinas, etc.

When they are adults, we can differentiate the males from the females because of a few yellow dots under the wings of the females and the tail has a yellow sweep. Young males can also have these yellow sweeps behind in the tail, which they lose with molting.

In general, it is difficult to differentiate the male and the simple female view, the best way to distinguish it is through molecular techniques performed by a specialized laboratory, making a sexing of cockatoos. These birds have a size of about 20 to 33 cm and usually lives up to 10 and 20 years old.

Male nymphs can sing and learn to imitate some words; what they can do better is to imitate sounds, melodies, etc.

Instead, the females of this species can even sing and emulate but less. They tend to be more affectionate.

The feeding of these birds is usually varied and easy to get, the more different seeds it contains, the healthier the nymph will grow. The seeds they eat are birdseed, wheat, oats, brown rice, buckwheat, sorghum, etc. To have a full diet, they also have to eat fruits like apples, pears, strawberries, bananas, tangerines and vegetables like carrot, cucumber, tomato, broccoli, lettuce, etc.

You can also treat them with candies, like whole sugar-free biscuits, snack for parrots, nuts (pipes, these are very good in cold time) sporadically.

By having an appropriate diet, we will prevent our nymph from getting sick since they may seem to suffer obesity and this causes heart problems, circulatory, liver problems, etc.

Nymphicus Hollandicus Mutations

Within the family Nymphicus Hollandicus or cockatoos nymphs, there are some mutations that make our bird show different colors to parents and a series of traits characteristic within each modification.

Mutations in the spices of parrots are usually caused by factors that produce changes in the color pigments of the feathers of the bird: changes in melanin and carotenoid and the structural color just occasionally (Anderson 2001).