# Rat Losing hair??



## PrincessRat (Aug 22, 2012)

My rat Emimy (She is a little over 2 1/2 years old now) was sitting in her cage with my other girls and I took them out to play when I noticed that Emimy has some patches on her back where her hair is very thin...they aren't quite bald patches but it's obvious there is a lot less hair there than the rest of her. What could this be from? What can I do for it?  will she be okay? I've never had to deal with this before.


-Rats are my life-


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## elliriyanna (Jul 27, 2011)

Rodents sometimes as they age their fur thins  My hamster is almost 2 and his fur is thinning too ... This happens in a lot of animals actually. I wouldnt worry much


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## PrincessRat (Aug 22, 2012)

Okay thank you so much! I knew it happened to hamsters as they aged, but my old male rat lived over 7 years and it never happened to him or any other rat I have had so I was concerned


-Rats are my life-


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

What! you had a rat live 7 years? the oldest rat on record lived 7 years 8 months (or was 7.8 years?). Sorry but you rarely hear of a rat living over 4, sometimes 6, but never 7.

Anyways some rats do get thinned fur, other stuff can be causing it as well, like the lack or too much of a certain vitamin, mineral, or protein. Do any of her cage mates have barbering (obsessive grooming, its often seen in rats who were kept by themselves early in life, or had a very stressful early life, it can also be genetic sometimes) one of her cage mates could of just got grooming happy, it sometimes happens. you could try rubbing olive oil into her skin, it could help, the worse its going to do is nothing, she licks it off, or her fur gets more soft. But considering her age, its probably just old age, some rats get it, some don't.


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## PrincessRat (Aug 22, 2012)

Yeah he lived so long. He escaped from his cage and there was he got outside (we think) and it was cold winter and we never saw him again. He lived all his seven years in a 10 gallon tank with pine shavings and hamster food.  (he was my younger sisters and she wasn't a very responsible pet owner and we didn't know much about pet rats.) I feel bad for the little guy now that I know just what terrible living conditions he was in, I was 11 when he died and wasn't all that interested in rats like I am now.

And well, my little 3 month old double Rex likes to clean my other girls quite a bit. I think she likes it because they have a lot of fur unlike her so it's more fun than cleaning herself. And of course they just like cleaning each other anyway. But she hasn't been doing it more than usual or anything. Emimy has been going through depression since her sister died (she was 2 and died from pneumonia and lung cancer about 3 weeks ago.) She wouldn't be pulling her hair out or anything because of that could she? I've never heard of that happening but i'm not sure. I will try the olive oil.


-Rats are my life-


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