# Is this a bald spot or will the feathers still grow?



## Mahiro (Jan 25, 2018)

Hey
The tiel on this picture is 25 days old and I'm not sure if the current bald spot will be covered in time.
The parents aren't lutino, both are pearl and the male split to lutino so that's how the chicks got their lutino pearl genes. The parents don't have any natural balding. 
Does it seem like the chicks do or is it normal at this age?


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

It's normal at that age and should grow in but it might still have a small bald spot. The issue is the pearl gene that can cause the crest feathers to be lighter than usual. But it shouldn't be a very noticeable spot if there is one.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The back of the head is the last place to feather in, and there are pinfeathers in place already to help cover the area. Are there pinfeathers in the area that's covered up by the crest in the photo? If there are then there probably won't be any bald spot at all. If there aren't then you might have a small bald spot. 

Bald spots are a risk with lutinos whether the parents were visual lutino or not. Having non-lutino parents helps reduce the risk, but it can still happen.


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## Mahiro (Jan 25, 2018)

tielfan said:


> The back of the head is the last place to feather in, and there are pinfeathers in place already to help cover the area. Are there pinfeathers in the area that's covered up by the crest in the photo? If there are then there probably won't be any bald spot at all. If there aren't then you might have a small bald spot.
> 
> Bald spots are a risk with lutinos whether the parents were visual lutino or not. Having non-lutino parents helps reduce the risk, but it can still happen.


Thanks for the answer. Yes, there are some pinfeathers under her crest also in reality the bald spot actually looks smaller than in the photo, if she moves her crest backwards you won't see any bald spot at all. And looking at the first picture which I just took some hours before, her bald spot appears somehow bigger than it is now, I took both pictures today, this one just some minutes ago. It does look smaller here


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## Jenn1469 (Jan 23, 2018)

I had 2 lutino cockatiels at different times as a kid and both were bald under the crest. At 16 I got a cockatoo who of course was also bald there and I thought it was normal and never thought about it again until seeing this post and realizing neither of my current birds have it! Lol


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