# How Do I Put A Stop To Barbering?



## Grotesque (Mar 19, 2014)

Olive (hairless rat) shares a cage with 2 furry rats (Spice and Sugar). There was an incident recently where my boyfriend accidentally put her in the wrong cage where she asserted dominance and and beat up the dominant rat that is much bigger than her. This happened in the matter of 3 minutes and as soon as we heard the squeaks, we removed her and put her back in her own cage. 

Other than some scratches and being a little shaken up, she was no worse for wear. After some blueberries and cuddling, she was fine. 

What happened though... is I think her winning that scuffle got to her head. She is being VERY dominant to her cage mates and has started barbering all the hair from behind both rat's ears. There is no irritation or inflammation. 

Is there a way to make this stop?


----------



## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

The trouble with barbering is that its generally a nervous habit a bit like biting your nails, often brought on by periods of stress. Much like biting nails its very hard to stop. I would give her time and a normal routine for a while, perhaps reducing the size of the cage and limiting free range a little (this can stop what I term "nervous dominant behaviour" by giving them less space to control for a period of time). I'm afraid if this doesn't settle it theres very little you can do. I have had luck with a self barberer by putting dr Johnson tea tree cream on his wrists when they were sore, this tasted bad so stopped him for as long as I was applying it, but he went right back to it when I stopped. I used it to help him heal if he took it too far.


----------

