Pekin Bantams with Bald Heads - Mites, Deformity or Something Else?

[RatCatRooster]

Hi Everyone!

Sorry to be a constant question asker & not much of a question answerer.

About 9 months ago, I took in seven little bantam roosters. On arrival, I noticed a few of them in particular had strange bald heads with the skin appearing scarred or deformed.

They all seem fine, happy little chaps running around, doing normal birdy things, however, two of them have died in the past nine months. One from unknown cause, the second choked to death from canker + food

despite showing no symptoms of lethargy etc (I take them in hand regularly, because they're so cute and friendly, and hadn't noticed anything odd). They've all been treated for canker now.

The only strange thing about them is that they do tend to tremble, quite severely, when taken in hand.

Anyway, here are some pics of their little faces. I had thought I spotted mites and treated with vaseline mixed with mite powder, but after treatment, the feathers never grew back, even though I never spotted the mites again.

Note the second little rooster (one of the ones who died) had one blue eye and one orange, and had a deeply curved back - maybe inbred or something? He was tiny compared to the others as well.

I should point out that they live with three other bantams - a Pekin, a silkie and another little guy, none of whom are showing any weird baldness symptoms.

Any ideas would be welcome! Just wanting to make sure I'm not overlooking something that should be treated.

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[chicks2love]

Looks like they are molting. You can clearly see the new feather shafts emerging in the first picture and maybe some just starting in the second one. In my experience, chickens usually wait until they molt to grow back the missing feathers. Hope this helps!

 

[RatCatRooster]

Hiya- thanks for your reply.

Yeah, the little guy at the top was definitely moulting when I took the picture, but those bald red heads have persisted. Particularly the guy in the second pic - the sort of raised appearance of the face skin, it just looks strange to me. We have a fancy pekin we got from elsewhere, and he just looks so different, it makes me think there's something wrong with these guys

 

[chicks2love]

I wonder if it has something to do with the breed of the birds... I've had chickens for five years and none of mine have red faces like yours. I looked under Breeds on this website, and there were some breeds that appeared to have faces without feathering on them. Just a guess...