I work at a pet store and in early February we had a female rat returned to us who was pregnant. We only sell males, but a female got mixed in from the vendor and was missed. She had 11 pups on February 4th. We sell what we call "fancy rats" which are generally just regular old domestic rats, sometimes dumbos. The mother has a normal coat, and I was told the father did as well, but 4 of the pups (all females) developed noticeably curly fur. When they were about 3 weeks old, the fur began to look less curly, and more frizzy and straightened. At 4 weeks, the fur continued to have the lengthened, frizzy look, but it also looked to be thinning, and the skin could be seen quite easily through the fur. We initially thought this could be from the stress of being weaned, or just the natural process of this curly/frizzy hair that none of us were very familiar with. Now at 5 weeks, they are continuing to have thinning hair and definitely look to be balding.
Could they be hairless and this is the natural process of the hair, or could there be a more serious, underlying issue. We aren't sure if it could be something auto-immune like alopecia, or if its a normal part of their genetic makeup. They are all bright, alert, and seemingly healthy and normal otherwise. Any ideas? I don't currently have any pictures, but I could get some in a few days when I'm back at work.
I took picture of one of the females today. These were the only clear pictures I could get. The thinning is most pronounced on their back, but occurs to some degree on most of their body, and a minimal amount on their forehead/around ears.
Could they be hairless and this is the natural process of the hair, or could there be a more serious, underlying issue. We aren't sure if it could be something auto-immune like alopecia, or if its a normal part of their genetic makeup. They are all bright, alert, and seemingly healthy and normal otherwise. Any ideas? I don't currently have any pictures, but I could get some in a few days when I'm back at work.
I took picture of one of the females today. These were the only clear pictures I could get. The thinning is most pronounced on their back, but occurs to some degree on most of their body, and a minimal amount on their forehead/around ears.
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