# Line of feathers missing down Sophia's chest



## vitaminmandi (Jan 22, 2014)

Hi guys, hope you're all doing well 
I just have a quick question. Sophia was preening earlier and I saw a line (maybe half an inch thick, and that's generous) of skin down her chest. It is not visible normally and this is the first time I've seen it. I've never seen her pluck her feathers, and she doesn't show any signs of boredom or frustration. She's about 9 months old now (according to the store I from which I got her). Unfortunately I was unable to get a picture of it because her feathers cover it. I was just wondering if I need to worry. Sorry if this is a normal thing and I'm just an overbearing bid mommy, but I just want to be sure she's healthy. Thank you!


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## moonchild (Jul 29, 2012)

All of my birds have that, so I think it's safe to say it's normal.


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

That's where the keel bone is. The feathers naturally part there, making it a gap, revealing the down underneath.


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## vitaminmandi (Jan 22, 2014)

Thank you for letting me know!


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## LaurulCat (Jan 4, 2014)

It is also the location of the 'brood patch' where the opening of the feathers allows the eggs being incubated to come into contact with the parent's skin. I don't know how many times I have watched my hens open that area before snuggling down on their eggs.

Also, in the wild, cockatiels live in an arid semi-desert habitat. The hens often soak their breast feathers in water during the time they are incubating their eggs and when they do this, they fluff out all their breast feathers and then dip them into the water, trapping the water between the feathers. They then fly back to the nest and again open the feathers and use the mosture they trapped in the feathers to increase the humidity around their eggs as they incubate them. My first cockatiel, Gracie, loved to wade around in a bowl with two inches of water in it. Then she would open her breast feathers and dip her chest into the water, fly back to her nest and make sure she throughly wet each and every egg. I asked my vet about the behavior and she is the one who told me about the natural behavior of the cockatiel in Australia. I did a lot of research and even saw videos of the wild birds doing the behavior.

I have only ever had four hens who did the water trapping behavior out of a total of fifteen hens I have had over the years.


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## vitaminmandi (Jan 22, 2014)

That is very interesting considering she is currently on some eggs. Thank you for your input


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

These unfeathered areas or 'tracts' are on several areas of the body...


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## vitaminmandi (Jan 22, 2014)

Okay good. I just saw it and bugged out because I love my sweet Sophia and I didn't know what to search for on google. Sorry for the noobish question. Everything I searched just came up with feather plucking so I wanted to make sure. Thank you!


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