Balding male zebra finchs

Question
QUESTION: Hi I have 2 female spice finch's and a male & female zebra
finch, the zebra's have had 2 brood's? one set we hand fed
them & ended up w/ 1 that lived ,he is now in another cage
w/ a female we got for him ,so he isn't lonely [He is very
tame & sit's on our shoulder's all the time we leave the
cage door open on a once daily basis] and then the pair of
zebra's had another brood which again we hand fed her
baby's & ended up w/ a white female & a male both r
beautiful they r in their own seperate cage too,they are
just getting their red/coral beak's and are just being
weaned onto millet & seed's ,then the original zebra's had
another brood & this time we let her keep this bunch cause
she had the proper diet so she & the father were able to
feed the babies[the other time's they only had a seed diet
so they weren't able to feed the baby's] this brood was 2
female's 1 white & the other a light grey & 3 male's .but I
started to notice the father was balding? and I had to take
out 1 of her male baby's cause someone? plucked him almost
featherless except some of his wing feather's & the mother
wasn't feeding or paying attention to him & I couldn't take
seeing him follow her around trying to get fed & he was
wasting away,so he is in a seperate cage also & is being
hand fed like the other one's[exact baby bird hand feeding
food] ,which leave's the 2 male & the 1 white female & 1
soft gray female baby's. the father seem's to be getting
back some of his feather's on the top of his head he only
has missing feather's toward's the back of his head and a
little way's down the back of his neck,but now I'm noticing
the 2 other male baby's are balding on the head as well!
what is going on? I am not a breeder, it started out when
my husband brought home the 2 spice finch's for me & I fell
in love w/ the bird's and got the 2 zebra finch's that r
having all the baby's.The cage their in[ the 2 spice & the
mom & dad zebra w/ their 4 baby's] is approx 3 feet long 2
1/2 ft high & 2 ft deep ,I give them  spray millet, a seed
mixture that supposedly has egg in it along w/ another seed
mix that has DHA & omega 3 along w/ I recently put in a
wheat grass plant which they seemed to love but now 2 of
the baby's are sleeping in it also. and they have 4 water
dish's, I don't have to work so I have plenty of time to
change their water regularly.If it were mite's wouldn't the
2 female spice finch's & the mommy zebra finch along w/ her
2 female baby's be balding or losing feather's ? but they
don't seem to be they look great!!only the daddy zebra &
the male baby's zebra's are balding on the head area,
please help me ?? I eventually want to get a large aviery
big enough to walk in ,but until then what could be the
problem ,could it be stress ,due to having so many baby's
in such a short time?but i can't seem to stop them ! seem's
like he's alway's building her a nest & she's having egg's
even though this is the 1st brood they have had to actually
feed?I don't want to spray chemical's on them if I don't
have to? I'm at a loss???thank you.

ANSWER: It sounds like someone is picking at their feathers. Just keep an eye on them. If you don't see anyone picking feathers, best to take them to the vet

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QUESTION: what do you mean someone? ,the mother zebra finch? or the female sibling's that we let her raise in this last brood ,cause there is no other person here but my husband & I ?the runt of this last brood that was almost featherless [except for his wing's ]is growing back feather's he has a little beard,& I call them elvis sideburn's,lol he's the only baby chick we took out of this last brood. we left the  1 white female & the 1 light gray female /along w/ the other 2 male chick's as I said it's only the male's out of this last brood that are balding including daddy [on just the head ,so that's why I'm puzzeled if it was mite's or some kind of sickness why are'nt the female's in the big cage including the 2 spice finch's losing head feather's ? I did forget to mention cause I just remembered this but the mother zebra approx 1-3 week's after I noticed she had chick's in her nest, inside the little hut we have in the cage for them to sleep in ,I would see her w/ feather's in her mouth 1 at a time ,downy feather's, not pin feather's & she would eat them I saw her do it a number of time's I remember telling my husband " Look ! it look's like she's eating a feather so do you think she was plucking just the male's & why was she eating the feather's I wish I knew more about not just bird's but finch's ,all the other baby's they had are fine male or female just the one's we let them raise? thank you

ANSWER: So you saw her pulling them out of the baby? Mothers do preen their babies. One thing I had noticed common with my own zebra finches is that they often developed feather picking habits. Unfortunately I don't know of a way to stop this aside from separating the feather picker from the rest. Some say having a small little bit of salt is supposed to help but I don't know, I've never tried it.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


the 1st male chick   QUESTION: I did actually see her luck the male chick's or father,but after i saw her eat the soft feather's 1 at a time I started to watch way more closely & noticed her go into the nesting area & come out w/ a feather & eat it w/ some water and that's when I noticed the plucked runt running round beggin his mom for food & she would ignore him but feed the other chick's his sister's & brother's & the father was the 1st one I saw w/ his head plucked,both the runt [that is in his own cage inside cause I couldn't bare to watch that any further,& the father's feather's are both growing back in ,the father's are growing from the front of his face & on back & the runt is growing soft one's like a goatee & on the side's of his face,and as to the salt where do I put that in the food or where & how do I only make sure the mother eat's the salt? the picture I sent is the very 1st male chick these zebra parent's had he's doing well he was hand fed ,his name is big boy

Answer
There are tiny little food dishes you can buy at pet stores one's with space the size of your pinky nail. Apparently you are supposed to put the salt in one of those dishes. I don't know how well that will work. You can try mixing a very small amount into the food. Eating feathers can't be good for her. If you don't do something it could possibly kill her (I do not know this for a fact, this is just an educated guess)