Little Angels, I noticed you had posted a thread about Zuppy back in February about his feathers on his head. How initially he started missing some feathers then later on there was a big bald spot at the base of his head in the back.

I have a male Plet with exactly the same thing. Three weeks now.

At first I was afraid it was a health thing until I saw it leaning to behavior.

I attributed it to his hen plucking him. But then I found him running to her with his head down almost requesting she pluck it. I caught him trying to regurgitate to her so thats when I decided it was breeding thing. He's only a second year bird so he's a bit "off" with the whole thing lol.

He also has some other "erratic behaviors". You would think it's breeding season but it's not.

They get a natural daylight schedule with decreasing daylight every day.

I realized I was giving food that was almost all nuts as a treat (wrong container error) for three weeks so I corrected that. He has a good diet otherwise. I'm hoping the decreased vitamin e is the solution. Plets respond quickly and harshly to diet "errors".

I see the behavior decreasing but not entirely unless the house is dim like today it's raining.

Can you tell me if you finally decided what it was with Zuppy?

Did it stop? Thanks for whatever info you can give.

i started giving him daily baths in aloe juice mixed with water...every second day i put the aloe juice directly on his head...it did start clearing up but once i switched him to zupreem pellets it cleared up completely...

im thinkin he must have had an allergic to something in the harrisons seed that the rest of them get.. my AV seems to think it was that or dry skin... but to be honest his skin wasnt flakey and the aleo didnt completely clear it up

his bald patch was at the very top of his head so there was no way he could have been plucking it

some before pics







and afterwards... sorry i dont have any that show his head only








excuse his tail...he has decided that he likes to play rough with his toys and has broken all but one of those tail feathers!!

Thanks so much. That's so helpful . Toby's is at the base of his head in the back. He looks like he has a lttle egg head on big shoulders now since the fluff is gone.

I can see where you mighta freaked out since you can see it's physical not plucking type thing And the location. That to me looks just like a dog with allergies.

I agree the proof is the food changed it. The aloe probably was just healing the skin somewhat and helping it not hurt or whatever.

OK well that makes me hopefull, thanks again

Cindy I had a similar incident with Kita. She lost all the feathers on the top of her head. The patch was actually bare to the skin. Her skin also got very dry. This happened after she went through all the treatments for Asper and Zinc Toxicity and was sitting on eggs. I had a skin scraping tested and it was a nutritional deficiency. We're still battling back. She has regained all her feathers and the skin is about 80% better.

My problem right now with jewel, is I noticed her Tail feathers, there are a few that look almost as like they were cut with a scisor, one already broke half way, and another is going to any minute now. I cant figure out if it was like that for a hwile or she did it, it doesnt look like she did it, it looks so neat, like a scisor cut, also on each wing the outside of her last flight feathers are barbed, like quills... mabe shes rubbing them through the bars? I cant figure it out.... but it doesnt look good. any ideas? Are they just gonna be ugly until she molts?

Is there any chance someone else crimps the tail. Peanut has being systematically chopping everyone else's tails. He has been giving the others decorative kinks in the tails. The feather later beaks off where he bent it. Babies play rough and rarely have a good looking tail until they learn exactly how a tail should be taken care of. Peanut is the only one that has a halfway decent tail.

Josh I know it's quite common for babies to have stress bars on their feathers. I have seen a feather make a clean break at the stress bar mark. It ends up looking just like someone cut it with scissors when it breaks off. If they are barbering they can also do a clean cut. But I doubt she is barbering at this young age. If she were breaking them off due to rough play I'd expect to see the feather be V shaped at the end and not a clean cut.

Forgot to mention; yes they will be like until she molts those feathers out. You can try a good soaking shower. That will at least neaten them up and help them to lay flat.

Oh my. Well the good news is I can get a scraping easier than bloods.

And top of head. Thank goodness, Toby's is in the back on his shoulders. So I really think it's breeding plucking and heat in the house

I'll snag a photo...tell me what you think since I know you guys are all clairvoyant

I didn't know this, thanks Karen. Months ago Winston molted out a flight feather and it looked like it was clipped. I figured that he must have been clipped at some point, although I have no evidence of that (I was told he was fully flighted when he was dropped off to the pet store, and he appeared to be fully flighted when I brought him home). So I guess it's possible that it could have been a break at a stress bar mark. I just know that I was shocked to see that drop to the floor LOL.