[stewiemom]

Hello, I am new to this site and having a little bit of trouble finding threads, so I apologize upfront if there has been a similar post to this

I have a lutino cockatiel (unsure of the sex since they say it is very hard to tell the sex of lutinos:blink his name is Stewie; very pretty (has that lutino bald spot on the top of his head too hehe!) loves eating all day and drinks water and chirps when he does. All in all he seems to be a pretty content bird.

Despite being a beautiful bird; it seems as though he doesnt have all his feathers under his wing. His wings were clipped when we got him.. its been atleast 3 months and still has not grown back we just moved house so I have not been able to find a avian vet around my area i have also asked around with no luck.
so I found this site in hope to be able to have some sort of idea as to what is going on with Stewie.. this morning I woke up and took him out of his cage to play with him. He tries to fly; but does a little figure eight, loses a few of his long feathers and landed on the carpet where i picked him up to play with. Then I noticed that he has lost feathers ABOVE his nose. It isnt bleeding; not really irritated, not flaking. Could this be from him biting the wiring on the cage? trying to pick at food on the bottom of the cage (under the wiring?) or is it something else? Doesnt look like he has mites cause I cant seem to find any mites on his whole body.
I know that this is a very long thread but i have been worried all morning I am sorry that everything may seem vague. I havent ever had a bird before and I feel bad that hes balding on top of his nose
thank you for reading this; any response is well appreciated. Thank you!

 

[tielfan]

Can you post some pictures? That would help us figure out what's going on.

Are his wings clipped unevenly? If one side is much longer than the other or if it's just a one-wing clip, that will mess up his ability to steer properly. If he crashed head-first into something, that may be the reason he's lost feathers above his nose.

Feathers don't grow continuously like our hair does. So when a feather is clipped, it stays that way until the bird molts out that feather and grows in a new one to replace it. Your bird's wing feathers will grow back to their natural length after he molts the old clipped feathers.

Birds naturally have fewer feathers in the "wingpit" area and small bald spots are normal there. If there are big bald spots under the wing there might be a problem.

 

[stewiemom]

thank you so much!

i actually dont have a picture of his baldness cause im currently not using my own computer and dont want to put pictures from my camera when its not my computer (just incase the owner doesnt appreciate me doing so:wacko

well when he was flying and landed on the carpet there were tiny tiny feathers on the carpet (and it wasnt from before cause i had just vacuumed) and by tiny i mean not fluffy feathers from under his wing. so perhaps he crashed into something when i was rushing over to get him (incase he gets up somewhere where he cant come down) and lost his feathers. its just around aboove his nostrils. I know it would be SO much easier with a picture i am so sorry i cant show you

i just figured that feathers come back like finger nails thank you for that information too. im still unsure if i should keep them clipped; but since he tries flying and he keeps crashing into things im unsure (and if this happens again!) I just know I cant do it myself so i will def get an avian to do it for me
thank you again for your reply!

 

[tielfan]

It sounds like he's doing a lot of crashing so it's possible that he was clipped too severely. With a good clip, a bird is able to glide down to a safe landing instead of falling like a rock. If you decide to keep him clipped in the future, it's good that you plan to have a vet do it. They should be able to do a good job that will help your bird land more safely.

It's also possible that your bird was clipped before he learned to fly properly and he just doesn't know how to land, and it's twice as hard to learn it now because of the clip. Unfortunately there are some breeders and pet stores who clip babies before they've learned to fly. When his wing feathers start to come back in it will take a while before he's fully flighted, and during that time you can see how well his skills improve and decide whether it's better to get him a proper clip or to let him be fully flighted.