# Has anyone seen this hair pattern / color variation before? PICS



## CindrDoLLy (Oct 3, 2012)

View attachment 33082
View attachment 33090
View attachment 33098



Hello, all! A few days ago I acquired four new rats, two pairs of females from different places. One pair I'm really curious about because I've never seen anything like them before.

I got these two at Pet Kingdom, a store for exotics. At the time that I got them, they both appeared to be PEWs. One is a standard hair dumbo (Lulu, on the left in first two pics)) and the other appeared to be a rex with standard ears (Fizz, on the right in first two pics). As time has gone by though, I've noticed that Fizz seems to be losing hair so I assume she's a double rex, but the areas she's losing her hair in is what's intriguing to me.

She seems to be losing her hair in areas where a hooded rat would have color. So she's losing hair on her head, and down her back. What's even weirder is that Lulu (pretty sure it's Fizz's sister but not 100% certain) seems to have thinning hair in a similar pattern. 

Is it possible for a rat with standard hair to somehow exhibit traits of a double rex? Her hair isn't nearly as thin as Fizz's, but you can see from the pictures that the hair is definitely thinning out. It gives her fur a purple appearance because of her skin peeking through. I've never seen a standard hair rat with hair in this pattern. Furthermore, she's recently started exhibiting a dark point on her nose (third picture) so she's a Himalayan and not a PEW like I originally thought. I think Fizz may be getting a dark point on her nose too but it's harder to tell on her because the hair on her head and face is pretty thin.

So, has anyone seen anything like these two before and can they tell me WHAT they are? I'd really appreciate it!


----------



## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Both of your girls appear to be double rex (and both look like Himilayins not Albinos).

Double Rex can be hard to explain. they aren't also near hairless, they can vary from almost hairless to looking like or even better then a Rex. From how short and thin their hair is I'm saying double rexes on both of them.

Funny hair loss pattern though, their patterns can be really odd to really neat looking. I've seen pictures of Double Rex rats during a molt that had swirls on them.

Very slight possibility that they got a bad diet and that they are going through a normal molt and because of bad diet, the molting, and possible mites or even barbering at the pet shop, it could be from that. However they look more like Double Rexes.


----------



## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

I'm pretty sure a double rex or rex in general has curly whiskers. http://www.afrma.org/c-c_rexdoublerex.htm I can't tell on Fizz but lulu appears to be himalayan non rex but fizz could be a double rex if whiskers are curly otherwise I'd go with that last bit lightning wolf posted


----------



## Kaliloca (Jan 24, 2013)

The thinning hair could be a molt. You'll have to wait and see what happens. 

Normally a double rex will have obviously short hair early in life. In fact you can tell when they're about 2 weeks old. The whiskers would also be "very" curly. If google pictures of them you'll see what they look like.

BTW I really like Pet Kingdom. I've been there before and they seem to take good care of their animals. They have a great variety too.


----------



## Eden10 (Aug 11, 2012)

To me they don't look like Double Rexes because of the whiskers...also I've seen many at my old job & they have obvious hair loss when they are babies.
It looks like molting or something to do with mal-nutrition/stress....altho they look pretty healthy.
My PEW boy had the same thing...


His was from just neglect/poor diet, but within a few days of TLC & good food his hair started growing back right away.


----------



## ratchet (Sep 27, 2012)

Doubt it's a double-rex. They have extremely noticeable whiskers. 

Could be from overgrooming, or a molt. One of my girl goes through hairless phases too. I think it's over-grooming, or perhaps poor genetics - as her nutrition is very far from subpar.


----------



## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

Kaliloca said:


> The thinning hair could be a molt. You'll have to wait and see what happens.
> 
> Normally a double rex will have obviously short hair early in life. In fact you can tell when they're about 2 weeks old. The whiskers would also be "very" curly. If google pictures of them you'll see what they look like.
> 
> BTW I really like Pet Kingdom. I've been there before and they seem to take good care of their animals. They have a great variety too.


I think it depends on the Pet Kingdom you're talking about. The one I know of never gives their puppies any water, and there's been a few times that I've walked in and at least one or two chameleons in one of the cages was dead.


----------



## CindrDoLLy (Oct 3, 2012)

Well, some additional info, Fizz does have curly whiskers and Lulu's fur and whiskers are completely straight. That's why I'm confused about Lulu's fur, she has no Rex characteristics. I think I'll accept molting as a possibility until I've had them for a bit longer...thanks everyone for your responses.


----------



## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

How old are they, they look roughly at the age where they have there first big moult from kitten to adult fur. Its perfectly normal for rats to get a little thin furred or even bald in places at this age, especially rexes (though with there whiskers they aren’t standard or double rexes). The pattern of head and along the spine is the classic moult line area. Some rats start to loose there kitten fur before there adult fur is ready to show, this can give this effect. If so there adult fur should be well on the way, though they may benefit from extra protein, good quality oils and copper to helps give the hair a kick start and ensure it comes through really healthy.

If they are older then there may be something else going on, do you have amny other rats in the cage, as sometimes barbering can give this look, though that’s a lot of fur to barber. Either that, mites or another hair type (like recessive rex, fuzzy etc, that may not have curly whiskers) might be to blame.


----------



## CindrDoLLy (Oct 3, 2012)

Thanks for the response as usual Isamurat. They are still young, I'd gauge about 5 to 5 and a half weeks. Lulu actually just went into heat for the first time a couple nights ago. They have a cage to themselves and I don't think it's barbering, they don't overly groom each other. It's definitely not mites either. In the case of Fizz, it may be something genetic that's more pronounced because she is molting. I know a lot of people here have said she's not a Rex or double Rex but Im pretty confident she has something like that going on because her hair has a slightly crimped look and her whiskers are curly. However you can't see her whiskers in these pics because her face isnt in the frame. When I first picked her up from the store, her fur was in tact and it was much easier to see the crimpiness in her fur.Another thing I'll mention about Fizz is she had really bad allergies when I first got her into my house. (And yes, I'm sure it was allergies and not a myco flair up or something else.) I took her to the vet and there's no fluid in her lungs or heavy breathing, and she was eating/drinking/playing just fine, just she kept sneezing and her eyelids were inflamed and itchy. She has since stopped sneezing and her eyes look normal now but I wonder if that has something to do with how quickly he started losing her hair.


----------

