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Pet ratlosing hair2007-11-24 22:14:11

Hi there.

I have two young male rats that I have owned for about a month now. Both are in good health and are developing very nicely. However, I just noticed a few days ago that one of the rats is losing some hair on his back. It looks like a bald patch. I'm a little worried, I have no idea what's going on. Does anybody have an idea of what it could be?

Answers:

If you do not see any wounds or scabs or excessive scratching associated with the bald patches then there is a good chance that the patchy boy is over-indulgent in self grooming or his cage mate is over-grooming him. In the Rat Fancy we call this "Barbering".

More on Barbering:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=ba...

Some answers here may scare you into thinking that it's something worse. Mites, allergy to bedding, and allergy to food will manifest themselves as sores, scabs, excessive scratching, redness of the skin, ect. If his skin is a clean pink but the fur is missing it's just Barbering. Barbering can, but not always, be brought on by stress and/or boredom. Sometimes it's just an inherited habit that may or may not resolve itself on it's own.

You may e-mail me at spazrats@yahoo.ca if you have more questions. :)

spazrats

"my life has gone to the rats"

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I recently read something about that but i can't remember now! Best thing to do is visit fancy-rats.co.uk and check out the forums.. Someone will be able to help, their's plenty of rat breeders actively brousing the site.