Bald Amazon

[LoveForever]

My Amazon has lost her feathers on the top of her head. What causes this? She's getting some pin feathers now but we're worried that she won't get her feathers back. What can we do?

[LoveForever]

Thank you for your help!

[chapala]

Maybe she is having a heavy molt? If there are pin feathers coming in, the new feathers soon will be out. Then you'll be able to see if there's a problem or not. Let us know in a few weeks how she looks.

[Monica]

Are there any other birds with her in the cage? Is she excessively rubbing her head against anything? Is she using her feet to scratch a particular area on her head excessively, or pulling any feathers with her feet?

When in doubt it's a good idea to ask an avian vet.

[expressmailtome]

Just a question. Do you use cedar chips at the bottom of the cage? This can cause health problems including causing feathers to fall out.

Matt

[Voslover]

Most likley it's just a fairly heavy molt. Our Keiki gets a littlt baldy about this time of year. I wouldn't worry. Just watch for a few more weeks. It should come back nicely.

[LoveForever]

We don't use cedar chips in her cage, she does not have another bird in the cage, she only sleeps in her cage we keep her out all day. She does scratch her head with her claws, she dosen't pull her feathers excessively though. She lost all her head feathers after being lost for 9 days. We got her back but then the feathers fell out from the top of her head. This happened about a year and a half ago and she is just now getting pin feathers back. Some of the feathers have opened but they seem kind of thin. We thought that they may have fallen out because of the stress she had been under for those 9 days she had been lost. Thank you all for your suggestions and help!

[jenseits]

Can you post some photos of the top of her head? Has she been to her avian vet since you recovered her? If her feathers are coming back now, it sounds like your explanation is very plausible, but it doesn't hurt to have it checked out by a vet.

[LoveForever]

We had her checked out by an avian vet and the vet had no idea why her feathers fell out. The vet gave her a clean bill of health but treated her for parasites just in case she got into anything while she was in the wild. Now a year and a half later the pin feathers are just starting to come in.

[Nuesha]

That exact thing has happened to my Pionus.

I brought him to the vet to get checked for mites. She didn't find any but she gave me a flea/mite prevention and he soon had all of his feathers back.