Balding in Young Rat

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rattypatty

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2019
Messages
5
Location
Texas
My four week old baby Puff has been showing balding signs on her rear end. She is from a feeder bin so who knows what kind of awful things she was exposed to there. They all have the sniffles that I’ve been giving Amoxicillin as per what I’ve read on a Facebook group. Her diet is Oxbow Young Rat and Mouse food, daily vegetables, and occasionally some grains. Her cage mate passed away unexpectedly earlier this week, so I’m sure that caused a little stress on her end. After her passing, I got a new friend, Poppy. It couldn’t be self barbering, as she can not reach back there. If Poppy was barbering her, it would show more as patches, and not just concentrated on her bottom. I have not noticed excessive grooming and I sit out with them for about an hour each day in the bathroom. I don’t see any blisters either.

Someone mentioned she could be Rex, which I don’t think is likely considering her origins. Another suggested it could be a kitten moult, but would it really be this excessive? None of her siblings look like this. I just want other people’s hot take on this before I spend a fortune on the vet.
 

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She could just be stressed. One of my rats Barry has thinner fur than his cage mates bc he is extremely anxious. He's not even scared of me or his cage mates, or skittish, he's just an anxious rat who likes everything to be particular. New things make him sneezy and anxious and then he gets used to it. Stress is a big thing that can make rats lose fur. Another factor may be she has too much protein in her diet. i would double check the protein on the foods, and I guess if you're giving her veggies that are high in protein maybe reduce those. I've never fed commercial rat foods, my breeder makes her own food and ships it to me. It could be a number of things but if she is sneezy, It is most likely stress induced. Rex's dont usually bald, rex's are fuzzy babies, so it's def not that. Double Rex's are born bald, but there is a chance she's a patchwork hairless. Patchwork hairless rats are born with fur and gradually lose it as they age.
 
As juliaMoacyr said, too much protein can cause the issue but you don't mention giving them meat or eggs.. It's still possible she's got some Rex no matter her origins, even in 1 litter some could show it while others don't.
 
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