thinning hair?

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whoknew

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 27, 2009
Messages
260
Location
Pickering&Ottawa
i have been noticing for a few days that one of my new babies (a PEW) has thinning fur on his face up to behind his ears, then again by his bum up to about his lower back around his back legs. but all along the middle of his back down to his tummy is the usual white. but where its thinning it looks sparse and you can see his pink skin very well. there are no scabs or anything like that, so i dont think its mites. he is just under 2 months old, and so is his brother but the brother shows no signs of this thinning hair. im just a little worried because he has ja little prophyrin at the corner of his eyes for the last couple of mornings.
i will try to get a picture, but my camera hasnt been able to pick up the contrast in fur very well.
maybe im just being a nervous mummy... but i thought i would ask!
 
Is there any scabbing? I associate hair loss with a parasite at first thought. It was mentioned to me that too much protein in a diet can also cause some hair loss.
 
Cigar said:
Is there any scabbing? I associate hair loss with a parasite at first thought.
Click to expand...
whoknew said:
there are no scabs or anything like that, so i dont think its mites.
Click to expand...

Cigar-
As said in whoknew's post, there is no scabbing involved. :wink2:

Yes, a change in diet can also cause hair loss, and so can stress. Besides his eyes, does he have prophyrin around his nose? This could also be a sign of stress, along with the hair loss.
 
well, there is just a little bit.. i mean about the size of a pinhead..amount of porphyrin on his nose. i havnt had them for long so i associated the porphyrin with the stress of moving and such. but the thin hair is really odd. it doesnt gradually go from nice white fur to a little thin, to really thin.. but very abruptly. its like "bam" white fur to thin hair. its got me kind of worried, but a moult might make sense. i didnt know rats went through moults. hes acting completely fine other than his odd hair-do. oh.. and hes developped a little brown smudge on the end of his nose- so cute!
 
hes a PEW with just regular hair (non-rex?). and yes, hes just over 7 weeks... he was born may 29.
do they normally go through a molt at this time? my other boy shows no signs of this, but he is a black hoodie.
and what does barbaring usually look like? there are no actual patches missing.. just thinning.
 
whoknew said:
hes a PEW with just regular hair (non-rex?). and yes, hes just over 7 weeks... he was born may 29.
do they normally go through a molt at this time? my other boy shows no signs of this, but he is a black hoodie.
and what does barbaring usually look like? there are no actual patches missing.. just thinning.
Click to expand...

Some rats have thinner coats than others and it does sound like he;s molting. barbering is a shave down of the hair, sometimes to the skin :)
 
These are two pictures of my Lily who barbers her front paws herself. You can actually see her chewing, pulling her fur and then spitting it out.

RatsFeb11075Small.jpg

RatsFeb11084Small.jpg
 
thank you everyone for your replies and help.
thank you also LA for the pictures... although i do see him groom himself a LOT.. i dont think its barbaring. it doesnt quite look like that.
i see him and his brother flipping and pinning eachother and doing the whole "power grooming" thing a lot.. but its usually my PEW on top doing the grooming.
so i got a couple pictures.. theyre not great, but its the best i could do :







so you can kind of see from the top of his shoulders, on top on his head and to his nose is pink and has thin hair. then his lower back (looks like a brown stripe but is actually pink in real life) down to his tail is also thin.
would this be typical of a moult?
 

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