# Black Spots on Rats Fur.. Please Advise??!



## TachisMom (Oct 17, 2012)

My little girl Tachi has white and grey fur. Towards her but she has a bunch of black specks at the ends of her fur. I have checked her all over and there is nothing at the roots of her fur or on her skin. All the other girls are clear of any spots what-so-ever. We use Critter Care bedding (no Aspen or wood chips or anything like that). They have no contact with other rats or animals. Is it lice? Some of the spots are awfully big...

I just took a picture of the area and my fiance pointed out that she has a healing cut under where the spots are...could it just be scab that she scratched off (it's not infected and doesn't look bad or anything, just so everyone knows ...).

Tachi is my baby girl, so I may be over reacting a bit. Thank you all in advance for any help!


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## Jenzie (Dec 26, 2012)

Hard to tell without seeing in person, but it sounds like it could just be the scab coming off in little pieces. I'd say keep a close eye on her to make sure she's not scratching more than usual, and keep checking her fur for anything strange, but hopefully it's just the scab and it'll go away on its own.


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## TheRatPack8 (Dec 10, 2012)

(Don't laugh at me if I'm wrong) but I was was under the impression that it is very very difficult for rats to get fleas. Idk if that's true but I saw it while I was reading about Ratties. 


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Looks like mites to me. Care fresh And Critter Care is notorious for having mites in their bedding. Their also extremely dusty and dry that can in theory cause skin irritation so could be scabs. Mites would also cause itching which with long enough nails (or having this for a while) can cause scratch marks.

I would personally switch beddings to something better, if your against wood shavings of any kind (which is sad cause I like using Aspen, my boys love it) Kaytee Clean and Comfy is a better paper bedding, really soft as well but has 0 dust as it's just shredded paper/napkins basically. But this is up to you.

I've never heard of rats getting fleas.


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## TachisMom (Oct 17, 2012)

Thank you all for your help! I gave her a quick bath and all the black spots are gone. I will keep an eye on her for the next couple days though.

I don't use Aspen bedding because it gives Dahlia the sneezes, and this is the only bedding I've tried that doesn't.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Wow that's really weird, Aspen is the only one that doesn't give my rats issues (and My issues, I'm allergic to rat urine so the Aspen helps out a lot with that). Guess everyone is different.


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