Any idea what this is?

[scatherwaves]

Hi,
Can some one help me with this, am new to this forum
and this is my first bird, yellow sided conure 1.5 months old. Today i noticed hard skin on his head(feels like a rough bump) and no idea what it is, when i try to check it properly one of the feathers came out from that.

Please see the image, that hole is wer the feather came.

 

[Laurasea]

Hello,
Is this an unweaned baby that you are hand feeding? Or is your young bird fully weaned and eating on their own? What is tge diet?

I ask because lack of nutrients can lead to feather issues. Your baby has many long pin feathers. And grey under Feathers showing.. im not sure if some of that is age? But its concerning to me. If your bird tolerates you can use your finger nails to crunch the lower part if the feathers to help remove the rest of the sheath. Be careful takes practice to not pull out or anything. It will just turn to powder and fall off the feather. You can mist with a little warm water and offer a shallow dish with an inch of water to encourage baths. That will help with all the pin feathers.

 

[scatherwaves]

He started picking his food but not fully weaned also some areas feather is yet to come. But this hard skin is only on the head. I am using A19 formula.

Can it be mites?

 

[Laurasea]

No its not mites.
How much does your bird weigh?
I don't really know that formula, but twice I've heard about it, and the babies didn't seem to be getting the nutrition they needed.. it look like its formulated for larger breeds of parrots, maybe that isn't as good for GCC, i don't know...

One thing that is important, when babies are growing in their feathers they need a boost in calories, they often eat 1.5 times the amount they were eating. And wean by abundance, that is you offer every full feeding, plus offer lots of different kinds if chopped up veggies, a few seeds, and pellets. You let the baby choose to drop a feeding, and keep offering, slowly they will choose not to eat a feeding on their own. After the morning feeding teen tho they are full they will start to explore food on their own. I can find links if you need them.
This is a very important time for your bird to be getting all the nutritional needs and calories they need. It takes a lot to grow in these feathers. Maybe offer some boiled fine chopped egg, for a little extra protein.

I strongly feel this is s nutritional issue.
But the next thing I would worry about is Besk and Feathers virus, but that is much much more rare...