Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this female isn't a fully hairless rat but she shows patterns of "baldness" mostly around her face and paws... her underbelly and she's very sparsly furred along her whole body. Is she a possible carrier of the hairless gene or is this an allergy? she doesn't scratch.. has no scabs or anything on her.. no red patches or anything and she's been losing fur like this since she was... 9 weeks old... She's now about 5 months old but smaller than her other litter mates that I raised up. None of my other rats show this....

Some pictures.. not the best qulality but good enough to show what I'm talking about... She's not exactly easy to handle..she likes to bite but she's a good mother...

www.darkwaters.com/lucien/animals/Rats/Rat1.jpg
www.darkwaters.com/lucien/animals/Rats/Rat2.jpg
www.darkwaters.com/lucien/animals/Rats/Rat3.jpg
www.darkwaters.com/lucien/animals/Rats/Rat4.jpg
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 0.0.3 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystique))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"

I doubt she carries hairless. I would tend to think she is allergic to something. Unless she is doing a lot of scratching and hair loss progresses fast....then I would suspect mange mites.
I have hairless carriers that look entirely normal. Usually a rex, with the wavier coats, carrys the possibility of double rexing to a hairless rat too.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

Nope.. no scratching at all.. no signs of irritation.. healthy pink skin... just very sparse body fur that isn't apparent in the pics and the bald patches on her face and paws...None of the others exhibit it so it frankly puzzled me which is why I asked... Never dealt with hairless rats before so it was the only thing I could think of... I've kept her because she's a very good mother... like her mother was though just as bitey as her mother was too.. *shrugs* I'll keep a watch on her and see what happens...
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 0.0.3 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystique))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"

did she always have the bare nose and feet or did it only start recently? How old is she?

Other factors for hairloss I can think of are barbering (either to herself or other rats in the cage) which is excessive grooming to the point the hair is pulled/chewed right off. She could be getting old and lossing some hair that way, or if she was always like this then I would say it is genetic or the loss was a result of something and didn't grow back.

She's only 5 months old so its not age... None of the other rats in the cage exhibit it... so I wouldn't suspect suspicious grooming. At the age of 6 weeks.. her fur started sparsing out until then she was like the rest.. as the last few months have passed... her nose and paws have gone bald which is why I suspected something genetic in the first place... I've been keeping a watch on her. I'm not sure how many others from her litter might have been like her.. Most of my rats go into the freezer between 5 and 7 weeks for my juvie boa and my Savannah Monitor.. She was a female that got lucky and was being raised to replace an old breeder..and she's a fantastic mother though she's only into her 2nd litter now... It might just be time to bring new blood into the colony... I haven't done so in a while because my rats are all healthy and I hate risking Myco outbreaks...
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
3.5.3 Leopard geckos (2.0 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 0.1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short), 1.0 Rainwater Albino (Mycah), 0.4 Poss. Het. Albino (Annika, Lace, Rain and Aris) and 0.0.3 dbl. het blizzard x tang albino (Malice, Malfeas, and Mystique))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
3 cats (Ashe, Sahara and Hercules)
6 Fish (4 Red Danios, 1 Cardinal Fish, and 1 Tiger Barb)
8 Ramshorn snails
"And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!"