# Do you think she'll grow in feathers on her head?



## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

I can't see any new feather growth in the spot behind his crest. Just some new pins around the bald spot. Does that mean he's going to have a bald spot for the rest of his life?  I had assumed that he would grow back his head feathers (he and the rest of brothers were plucked by mom) by now, but it doesn't seem like it. His older lutino brother has already grown in all the feathers behind his crest and none of my other babies have bald spots. Neither do the parents. What do you guys think?


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## Tequilagirl (Mar 4, 2013)

If he used to have feathers there I would assume they will grow back, unless his parents destroyed his feather follicles, but I don't think it's the easiest thing to do. How old is he?


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## Nimra (Aug 4, 2014)

I think it is the most youngest baby in the flock.


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

He's 6 weeks old right now or 41 days. I pulled him at 19 days. Man does time fly. I'm not sure if he used to have feathers there. I had left him and his clutchmates in the care of my brother the week before I pulled them because I had been out of town. Yes, he is the youngest.


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## Nimra (Aug 4, 2014)

I am sure that this happened because he is young? Otherwise if you don't find answers you can search on the internet.


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## SoCalTiels (Oct 8, 2013)

You might get a better idea if you try to look when he has his crest up at attention or you're giving scritches. If you can't see pins towards the middle as well, it's probably a permanent bald spot and was always there. The older Lutino might have just lucked out in the genetics scramble. It's too bad that Lutino is such a weak gene for the bald spot . Rhea has one of the biggest I've ever seen, lol.


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## Tequilagirl (Mar 4, 2013)

Looks like there isn't much you can do other than the good ol' "wait and see". He's still very young though..


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

Aww dang. This clutch has had many firsts. First grey, first lutinos, first bald spot  It's strange though, since neither parent has a bald spot. 

I don't know, it doesn't seem like he's growing any feathers into the middle. It's pretty blank there. Doesn't the bald spot start at a young age?


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## Fredandiris (Nov 27, 2012)

I just looked at a little closer. It looks like he'll have barely enough to cover up the bald spot. Just baaarely. The other lutino is also fairly thin behind the crest but you can't really see it as well.


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## SoCalTiels (Oct 8, 2013)

The bald spot should be pretty recognizable when the bird firsts starts fledging out, feathers just simply never grow there. For why the parents don't have it, the bald spot itself is given strength by the Lutino gene most noticeably but I believe the pearl gene can also lend influence to the thinning of feathers behind the crest. Pied, however, is often used to strengthen the coverage of feathers, and the bald spot trait can often be bred out with selected pairs pretty quickly. With that, I'm basically trying to say the parents can have normal feathering behind the crest based on their own mutations while still carrying some genetic identifier for the bald spot. Hope that helps, it's really just based on what I've read and my overall limited understanding of tiel genetics.


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## Hellena (Feb 11, 2013)

only time will tell. He's still cute regardless.


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

I think she might, and if not, the other feathers will grow around it to conceal the bald spot a bit better. That's what usually happens.


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