Feathers missing from head

[JoeJoe]

This is my alexandrine Pauly and I noticed yesterday he was missing some feathers above his beak, on his head. This morning he had a few more and more of a bald spot there.

What could this be from? Is it normal molting? Will he be able to grow these feather back?

 

[Birdman666]

Is there another bird in the cage with him? If so, I'd suspect that other bird might have pulled them.

If not, I've seen them rub their feathers on a toy, or the bars of a cage, and lose them that way. Usually it's about new pin feathers that they couldn't get open, and they tried to get them open THAT way, and got them caught.

As long as the feather follicles are fine, then they'll grow back at next molt.

 

[JoeJoe]

He lives alone.

I suspect then he must have damaged them on the bars or a toy like you say.

Thank you.

 

[Terry57]

Xander, my Alex, loses the feathers on his head with every moult. Looks normal to me

 

[Dinosrawr]

I'm with Terry - Ringnecks are apparently very well known for extreme feather moulting along the head. Here's a picture of my IRN moulting:

 

[Birdman666]

I defer to Alex owners on this one. I haven't really worked with many of these guys. I was speaking in general terms.

Bottom line:

If it's a normal molt, they grow back.
If he got them caught on something, and the feather follicles are fine, they still grow back.

If on the off chance, they don't grow back, there's really nothing you can do about it anyway.

So I wouldn't lose any sleep over this one.

 

[Terry57]

Chantal, that is just like Xander looks during a moult, and sometimes even worse. Freaked me out the first time he moulted, and then my friend let me know all her Alexes and IRNs look the same during a moult, and then I was able to add my IRN to the list.

 

[Taw5106]

Looks like he has new feathers coming in. Buddy lost his head feathers last year, he looked like he had a hole in his head but the pins came through beautifully.