Bald Headed Chick

[ArthedainIV]

Anyone know what would cause a chicks head to be totally bald like this? It’s a Cream Legbar X Cream Legbar chick. I’ve hatched hundreds of chicks from these 6 girls and one cock but I have never had any come out like this. It’s about a week old now.

 

[GodLovesU]

I love him so much!

 

[AshVau22]

Definitely a first for me. I hope someone has an answer because I'd love to know. It came out of the egg like that? Wild.

 

[ArthedainIV]

Definitely a first for me. I hope someone has an answer because I'd love to know. It came out of the egg like that? Wild.

He sure did! Can’t help but feel like it’s some spontaneous mutation.

 

[CastielH]

I saw this bird on Facebook, it looks really interesting! Like others have mentioned it could be a spontaneous mutation which could be really interesting to try to isolate. If possible you should keep breeding the parents and see if you can recreate it.

 

[ArthedainIV]

I saw this bird on Facebook, it looks really interesting! Like others have mentioned it could be a spontaneous mutation which could be really interesting to try to isolate. If possible you should keep breeding the parents and see if you can recreate it.

Well hey from here as well! I am going to see what happens, I have probably hatched about 300 chicks from these 6 girls and 1 cock and this is a first here. I hope that it’s a hen as it would make pairing it back to the dad much easier.

 

[kattabelly]

My first thought seeing that hatch would've been that it was a similar birth defect to exencephaly but less severe. But as it's survived this long and you've not mentioned any other issues, I assume it has a fully developed and normal-shaped skull, and no apparent neurological problems?

And no issues with other chicks pecking it?

 

[ArthedainIV]

My first thought seeing that hatch would've been that it was a similar birth defect to exencephaly but less severe. But as it's survived this long and you've not mentioned any other issues, I assume it has a fully developed and normal-shaped skull, and no apparent neurological problems?

And no issues with other chicks pecking it?

So 100% for sure on no pecking issues.

It is about a week old now and doesn’t seem to have any neurological issues, it’s been following mom around, eating and drinking fine and keeping up with the rest.

It does seem like it has a slight cranial hernia though. You can see it’s higher and rounder above the eyes. It was never exposed at birth. It was also my impression that this is normal in crested breeds and I haven’t seen this cause baldness? I’m not familiar with exencephaly so I don’t know if it is different from the standard cranial deformities crested birds have.

 

[kattabelly]

So 100% for sure on no pecking issues.

It is about a week old now and doesn’t seem to have any neurological issues, it’s been following mom around, eating and drinking fine and keeping up with the rest.

It does seem like it has a slight cranial hernia though. You can see it’s higher and rounder above the eyes. It was never exposed at birth. It was also my impression that this is normal in crested breeds and I haven’t seen this cause baldness? I’m not familiar with exencephaly so I don’t know if it is different from the standard cranial deformities crested birds have.

I think both do, or at least can, have similar genetic causes but I don't know enough about genetics to be sure or say any more than that. Hopefully someone here will know more.

The way the feathered skin stops at the back of the head is just really similar visually to the chicks I've seen with exencephaly.

I'm glad it seems to be healthy, anyway!