Thursday, April 24, 2014

A to Z Blogging Challenge: U is For Unusual Rat Behavior

Seeing a picture of my little hairless rat, you might think she has a skin problem or her cage mates pulled all her hair out but she's just hairless. 

But the fact is some rats will do what is called, barbering to other rats. This means that they will clean them so much and so roughly that they actually pull their hair out. They will even do it to themselves. The most common reasons are mites or other parasites.

You can find my article about barbing below.


10 comments:

  1. Photos of Flower just make me smile. That's interesting about the barbering. I hadn't heard of it before.

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  2. So even rats go bald? That makes me feel better!

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  3. Is that the result of a genetic mutation? It reminds me of a mole rat.

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  4. My dog goes through a similar thing. When she has too many itches, she'll ending up taking most of her hair out in that certain spot.

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  5. Cassie chews the crap out of herself sometimes and takes all the hair and skin off

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  6. Poor pink things! That would be misery in the human population.

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  7. Shelley- She makes me smile too.

    Keith- Hairless rats are born that way but some do go bald because of barbering.

    Gorilla- No, just like a hairless cat, they are a different breed.

    Adam- Sounds like an allergy.

    Pat- Poor thing.

    Susan- Yes it would.

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  8. Thanks for educating me. I could see where barbering could be mistaken for aggressiveness, when it serves an important purpose.

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  9. i do have to say i prefer furry versions. :)

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  10. We've had kitties do that in the past but usually it's a mental thing not parasites. Our little Penny for years was a moth eaten mess but then she finally stopped doing it once we gave up on meds and all other attempts to stop her. They're so weird some days lol

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