# My rats are changing coat colours



## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

My two boys are now almost 11 weeks old and have been looking considerably more healthy since I've had them. One marked difference was their coats, both have gotten thick and shiny... but have started changing colour. I've read about rats losing baby fur, but I thought that happened a bit younger. Both my boys were dark when the came to me, now they're getting what I can only describe as agouti looking fur, but with grey black tones flecked with white instead of brown with white. When will their big boy coats be finished? Is this colour change normal?


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

Yes it is normal. It is called molting. Some rats may just change alittle, some colors/coats change a ton! Siamese for example start out dark and turn white with points!











It is hard to tell when it will normal out. Sometimes younger, sometimes older. 

Can you post some pics?


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

I'm not sure how to post pictures here.. I've tried, what do you use to put the pictures on?


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

First picture is now, second picture is the same rat (Chunk) about 2 weeks ago. Obviously the picture quality is a bit rough, but you can see how shiny he is now (not greasy, very very soft) and his fur is dark with a lot of white flecks


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

moonkissed said:


> Yes it is normal. It is called molting. Some rats may just change alittle, some colors/coats change a ton! Siamese for example start out dark and turn white with points!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Also, if this is your rat they are especially cute! I can't even :3


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Yup, rats will change coat color Misty was born blue and changed to "mink" or rather... something that looks like 1990's GM upholstery... you know the color that goes with every paint job... Now she's getting golden brown splotches at over a year old. I suppose some rats just aren't colorfast.... Actually, technically, Misty is currently a 3 color rat which is pretty sharp looking... I sort of hope she stays this way.

But to be honest, all of our other rats pretty much stayed the color they were born. So don't panic if your rats change color, but don't expect it either, unless you have one of the strains known to typically change color. 

Color typically has no impact on personality or health... so just enjoy the changes as they come.


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

Rat Daddy said:


> Yup, rats will change coat color Misty was born blue and changed to "mink" or rather... something that looks like 1990's GM upholstery... you know the color that goes with every paint job... Now she's getting golden brown splotches at over a year old. I suppose some rats just aren't colorfast.... Actually, technically, Misty is currently a 3 color rat which is pretty sharp looking... I sort of hope she stays this way.
> 
> But to be honest, all of our other rats pretty much stayed the color they were born. So don't panic if your rats change color, but don't expect it either, unless you have one of the strains known to typically change color.
> 
> Color typically has no impact on personality or health... so just enjoy the changes as they come.


Thanks Rat Daddy, I do like their new coats and though I read about small changes, I didn't think it would be an all over change so I was just checking that it wasn't an environmental factor or something. 
Both of my boys are so full of life and seem super happy and healthy right now. I'm loving being a rat owner!


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

> Also, if this is your rat they are especially cute! I can't even :3


Thank you! His name is Dean. I breed Siamese, I love how they change so much!!!

Your rat looks black to me in the pics. Black is a pain in the butt color to get nice. So many blacks end up rusting (turning brownish/red) or silvering. It kindof looks to me like yours is silvering. It sometimes happens older but can happen that young too. Silvering can look nice.
Non color wise, the coat change could be that you are feeding him better nutrition wise then what he was getting before.


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## Heyyouguys (Jun 19, 2016)

Oh that makes sense, his coat is starting to look a lot more like black than when I got him, and silvering sounds like a pretty good description of what is happening. Seems to be happening to my other boy, Sloth, too but his coat is much lighter, so he looks less 'salt 'n' pepper' than Chunk  I'm glad they're getting the necessary nutrition too, hopefully they'll stay this glossy and healthy for a long while.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Unless you are actually shooting for all black... silvering can be a nice touch... especially if the black stays jet black. Both Bunny and Spot really silvered up a lot and they are still very young.... about 5 and 3 months now. 

As to rusting, I always took it to mean our shoulder rats spent too much time in the sun (likely because is shows up most in bright sunlight. We used to joke it was a high mileage high wear thing. It probably isn't, and it doesn't bother the rats one bit... 

When I was breeding exotic tropical fish, color and body shape was a big thing... it's never easy to get it just right or often just the way you want it. But rats are personality animals. It's all about who they are and not what they look like. As a shoulder rat trainer, agouti and black rats look too much like wild rats to be easy to work with around people.... some people are rat phobic, and they really can't be near any rats, while others are simply afraid of rats.... The more your rats look like wild rats the more people freak out and people freaking out is never a good thing. But if you don't take your rats to public places, color doesn't matter one bit.


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## Ashywashy (6 mo ago)

Mr. Jelly Bean (my rat) is maybe about 2 months old, I bought him as a feeder so I'm unsure. He started off as an all gray rat with white feet and patches on his stomach, today I noticed he has darker gray on his head and it ends in a U shape, and his stomach is becoming more of a dirty cream color.


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