# Fixed my rats' rusting/silvering



## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

So for the past month(ish) I've added a pinch of paprika to my rats' "nutritional mush" they get daily. Supposedly some horse owners swear by it for darkening their horse's coats when they turn kind of brassy or what we'd call "rusty" on our rats. I figured, eh, why not? I have 2 rats who are pretty rusty, and one is also covered in silver hairs. And I already had paprika in the cabinet. I wasn't really expecting a change, but I had no reason not to.


2 months ago:










Today:










He has a greatly reduced amount of rusting and, though I didn't get a before/after unfortunately, he also has way fewer silver hairs. My hooded girl is also a bit darker, but she didn't have as much visible rusting since she's mostly white.

The cause of rusting in rats is sort of an unknown. It could be caused from saliva staining, diet, age, and genetics. My rats have eaten Oxbow their whole lives with supplemented veggies, so I can't imagine that there would be any deficiencies. He started rusting at 1 yr of age and has silvered since 3 months. He also comes from a feeder background, though he has been really healthy I imagined that his coat condition was a genetic cause. 

People from the horse community think paprika works because it contains copper, which is necessary for the production of melanin. Less copper, less pigment, more "rusting." But it honestly doesn't seem like anyone knows.

Well whatever it is, his rusting is almost gone and I'd throw an estimate that about 70% of the silver hairs are now gone.

Pretty cool! Thought I'd share.


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## Grotesque (Mar 19, 2014)

Awesome! What else do you put in the mush? I've heard a lot about cinnamon but don't use it.


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## charlypie (May 15, 2017)

What a strange solution, that's really interesting it did make a big difference.


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## Basiltheplant (Jan 2, 2017)

That is amazing! I wish I had known of that back when I had my Dot still around l, she silvered a lot


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## trico (Oct 31, 2017)

This is really cool! It's nice to actually see the HUGE difference as well!​


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

Grotesque said:


> Awesome! What else do you put in the mush? I've heard a lot about cinnamon but don't use it.


I put turmeric (+ black pepper for curcumin digestion), spirulina, garlic, ginger, ground flaxseed, kelp powder, drop of ACV, and yes- cinnamon. 

The garlic and ginger I don't put in every day, maybe 3 days out of the week?

It all gets mixed up in green beans and plain oats with water, occasionally a little squash or banana too.


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## Kelsbels (Aug 12, 2015)

Sounds good Coffeebean, how much of each do you put in? tsp? or smaller?


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

Kelsbels said:


> Sounds good Coffeebean, how much of each do you put in? tsp? or smaller?


I make only 1/2 a cup at a time so I add minuscule amounts of each, just 1/8 tsp or less. Turmeric, cinnamon, spirulina, kelp powder, and ground flax I measure 1/8 tsp. I only add the tiniest pinch of garlic, ginger, and black pepper. Then I just 1/2 cup of mixed oats/green beans/squash or banana for the bulk. Between all of my rats they each end up with about 1 tbsp.


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## Kelsbels (Aug 12, 2015)

Thank you! I will try it out.


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## Lunchy (Aug 28, 2017)

Out of interest, is there any other reason for doing this other than appearance? Our boy Morty has silvered quite a lot but I quite like how his fur is lol!


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

Lunchy said:


> Out of interest, is there any other reason for doing this other than appearance? Our boy Morty has silvered quite a lot but I quite like how his fur is lol!


I'm not sure really. We assume that rusting/silvering is genetic or diet based usually, but that's just an assumption. In my rat's case, he shouldn't have been deficient in anything since his diet is a complete lab block. If his was a genetic cause, which I'd always assumed, then I don't know why I would see an improvement after adding in the paprika. On horse forums they only assume that it could be the copper in paprika. As I said if you don't have enough copper then you can't produce melanin, which could lead to pigment fading. Paprika however is full of other stuff. It offers many other minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants besides copper. So the copper thing itself is also an assumption. 

If it was just copper, then a few sunflower seeds should have the same benefit. Sunflower seeds also contain some zinc, which is important since copper and zinc should be kept at a ratio with each other. I might pause the paprika and instead offer a pinch of sunflower seeds a few times a week to see if his condition is maintained. If not, then maybe there is something else in the paprika that is making a difference.

But again, why should he be deficient in copper at all? Is it possible that animals that produce more melanin like black rats are at higher risk of copper deficiency? Or maybe certain individuals just have more trouble utilizing copper? That could even be considered a genetic cause. Maybe the ratio of copper to zinc is sometimes off, in cases where an owner might supplement certain foods which contain either more zinc or more copper? 

I think from now on if I see a noticeable amount of fading or excessive silvering in my rats I might first address a possible copper deficiency. That would fall in line with a diet issue, which would be a health issue, yes. That doesn't mean that if your rat is rusting or silvering that it's a diet issue, but I do believe that there are some rats out there who might improve the way my guy has. I'd be interested to see if it has the same effect on other rats who are fading or silvering. There's no way for me to guess if there is any kind of health consequence associated to silvering or rusting, I'm just as clueless about silvering as anybody else, to be honest!

I found a picture on my phone from months back of my boy. Not a good picture but you can see the silvering he has on his flank there. It was worse on his bum. 










You can see some improvement here, I just took these pictures 20 minutes ago on the same side of the room to get the lighting as close as I could manage. I failed.


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## Fu-Inle (Jan 22, 2015)

I don't it has anything to do with health. I think its just ageing and the coat type. It probably happens with other rat colours but you just notice it more on black rats.


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