# Missing feathers from cheeks



## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

today i noticed 2 of my cockatiels had no feathers on their checks in other words their cheeks are gone and i can see ears, might this be due to them moulting or preening, both tiels are placed on different cages thanks im really worried ill take pictures tomorrow


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

are they molting really heavy? sometimes i notice mine have thinner cheek feathers when they molt heavy.


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

DallyTsuka said:


> are they molting really heavy? sometimes i notice mine have thinner cheek feathers when they molt heavy.


yea they are molting heavily, but i can see their ear holes


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

can you post photos?


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

DallyTsuka said:


> can you post photos?


ill take some and post em tomorrow, i didnt have time today sorry


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

not a problem


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

My birds sometimes have visible ear holes while they're molting. It doesn't happen every time they molt but it does happen occasionally.


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

tielfan said:


> My birds sometimes have visible ear holes while they're molting. It doesn't happen every time they molt but it does happen occasionally.


Oh ok, its cause i had never experienced this before, ill be uploading the images shortly


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)




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## Dreamcatchers (Apr 17, 2011)

Thats not moulting, that's another bird plucking. I had a male who did that to all my brightly colored girls. He left the white faced girls alone but all the normal faced girls had their cheeks removed. He wanted to breed with them but they were not cooperative so he would remove their cheekpatches to make them undesirable to any of the other males. I sat outside one day and watched him do it.


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

Dreamcatchers said:


> Thats not moulting, that's another bird plucking. I had a male who did that to all my brightly colored girls. He left the white faced girls alone but all the normal faced girls had their cheeks removed. He wanted to breed with them but they were not cooperative so he would remove their cheekpatches to make them undesirable to any of the other males. I sat outside one day and watched him do it.


really? i learned something today


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

yeah that looks like plucking, not molting. look at the unplucked bird in your cage, might be the culprit


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

DallyTsuka said:


> yeah that looks like plucking, not molting. look at the unplucked bird in your cage, might be the culprit


i have 3 females and 3 males all in separate cages paired up, and ever since i put the cages close to one another that's when it started, know that Ive set them back to how they used to be i haven't seen any more plucking


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

it does look like its just the hens... i think dreamcatchers is right lol when you moved them close to the others maybe the males felt the females were too pretty for the others and wanted to make them look funny so the other boys wouldnt look lol


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

DallyTsuka said:


> it does look like its just the hens... i think dreamcatchers is right lol when you moved them close to the others maybe the males felt the females were too pretty for the others and wanted to make them look funny so the other boys wouldnt look lol


i find it more funny because 2 of the males on the other cages are kids from one of the affected pairs lol so in other words dad thought kids had the hots for their mom LOL and kids tought dad had the hots for their wives, birds... lol


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

yikes, that is kind of funny when you think about it, well i hope they grow back without trouble now and hope it stays that way


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## Thelion151589 (Aug 8, 2011)

DallyTsuka said:


> yikes, that is kind of funny when you think about it, well i hope they grow back without trouble now and hope it stays that way


Me too thanks for your help


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> dad thought kids had the hots for their mom


Hey, it can happen. Henry totally wants to do his mother and follows her around like he's velcroed to her. Fortunately she isn't interested in him and has remained faithful to her mate (Henry's father).


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