Thin films of CdO have been grown by a variety of deposition techniques, however few researchers have used metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD). Here, CdO was deposited onto alumino-silicate glass substrates in a purpose built reactor, under atmospheric pressure, using dimethylcadmium (DMCd) and n-butanol: a novel oxygen source. Initial studies of the growth conditions evaluated the effects of how different parameters such as temperature and precursor concentration influenced thin film growth. Characterisation of the initial growth experiments indicated that optimum film properties occurred over a low temperature range of 270 -290 °C. Here, the CdO films exhibited up to 90% transmittance (between 600 -900 run) with a variable band-gap around 2.4 eV. The film also shows spreading resistance as low as 17.1 ohms per square (.Q/o) for a thickness of 400 nm compared to 11 .Q/o for a 1100 nm film of indium tin oxide. At this optimum temperature range, CdO grain size was shown to be a minimum with a low surface roughness. The films also appeared Cd rich and of ( 111) and (200) orientation. Irradiation with UV light during the growth resulted in a decrease in growth rates but, spreading resistance remained unchanged. UV assistance produced columnar formations across the surface of the film extending up to 1 µm in height. The columns appeared to be (200) orientation. Manipulation of the grain size was also achieved in the experiments. Thin films grown at high growth rates are normally composed of small grains. However, when grown on a buffer layer of low growth rate and large grain size, the grains were approximately 70% larger in diameter. This increase explains the lower spreading resistance, 10.3 .Q/o, recorded in 600 nm films grown on the buffer layer.