# Rat has a musky smell? Hair discoloration



## tasha (Oct 16, 2006)

I have two female rats, both fancy rats, one is black/silver with white underneath and one is albino.
My albino rat for the last couple of week has had a strange perfumey smell on her, and the hair in the middle of her back is orange/red. Very lightly colored and hair to see but it also seems like maybe this is where the smell is coming from, I can't be sure.
Also last night I found a big, bright orange spot on her leg.

There is nothing scented in their cage, except their block food and the veggies/treats I give.. and none of that could have stained her like this. Especially on the back, between her shoulder blades?

My rats for the past few months have been chasing each other around the cage, getting on top of each others' backs and biting. Last night the white rat took a chunk of hair off the others' back. I'm wondering if they have put this mark on each other?

Only thing is that the black rat doesn't smell perfumey at all and has no strange coloring of her hair.


Anyone know what could be going on?! Sorry for such a long explanation lol.


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

she could ahve gotten into something during play time. rats are notorious for finding things their owners knew nothing about. could also be pee. i doubt the smell would be perfumy but then again i'm not there to smell and maybe our ideas of perfume smells differ. give her a bath, that'll get rid of it.


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## tasha (Oct 16, 2006)

The thing is, I did give her a bath once already to get rid of the smell and it came back pretty much within the next couple days. I bathed her with Johnson's baby shampoo which smells nothing like a MUSK type smell. It's gross, there's nothing in my house that smells like it lol. I'm guessing it's a scent/coloring that got rubbed off by the other rat but I was hoping maybe someone else had a similar experience and knew for sure.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

My rats had that, make sure she has no sores or scratches as it can be mice or lice. But after a treatment and bath the stains went away and didn't come back.

Make sure you are cleaning your cage on a regular basis. What bedding do you use?


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## Keackae23 (Feb 11, 2007)

My rats have that, but they're males and I just thought it was natural for male rats to be musty and have discolored coats. So...I don't know what to tell you. Perhaps it has something to do with their diet?


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## pieopah (Dec 4, 2006)

hey!! i have the exact same problem with my male rats....weird smell and reddish tint in their fur!! i was just gonna post something about it.....not only do they smelll weird...but i bathed and have been changing their cage more than usual..( i usually do it around twice a week) and the smell and color came right back....they also have what looks like blood around their nose....i heard of this when they have allergies to their bedding but i use safe bedding made out of some paper stuff...
has your albino had anything like that?


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## tasha (Oct 16, 2006)

MINE IS A GIRL LOL. Oh my gosh. No, that's a regular discharge they have around nose and eyes, this is just a weird orangish stain on weird spots like the leg or between the shoulder blades.
I use corn cob bedding. I clean the cage once a week, wash it out with baby shampoo and replace the bedding (including their hammocks that I made out of dish towels).
She doesn't have any scratches or sores that I can find! WEIRD! I guess I'll just bathe her regularly and wait for it to go away.


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

tasha: the corn cob bedding could be staining the fur. i only used it breifly a long time ago but i believe it gets a bit moldy and the yellow color stains a bit when wet if i remember correctly. when i was using i had to clean the cage twice a week to prevent from the mold and bathe my rats every other week to keep the staining down and i only had the one pale rat at the time. perhaps the smell is the mold? i liked the bedding because it was quieter and looked nicer then yesterday's news and it was just as absorbant with the smell but with the extra cage cleaning and the cost differences between the two i decided to go with the yesterday's news. 

pieopah: the red discharge it the tears and snot of rats. some eye crusties is normal but when you see it around the nose or more then usual around the eyes it can be the first sign of illness. keep an eye on their breathing and eating a drinking habits if you're unsure. if any of them decline then you may want to get the rat checked out with a rat friendly vet. having said that the same discharge can be caused by stress and a rat may be less likely to eat the same amounts during that time. this is why you watch the breathing sounds and water intake as well as taking into consideration the situation the rat is in. as for the musk, that's being male. proper ventillation and really good ordour absorbing bedding with a nice large cage can help significantly with the odour. as well as fairly regular baths. but make sure to use the right shampoos or you could harm their skin. i use johnson's baby shampoo myself and have never had any problems with that. i've heard others use cat or dog shampoos but i'm a little leary of using them as i know dog flea shampoo can kill a cat if used on them and they are specailly formulated for that animal and not meant to be used on another. so i went with the mildest shampoo tha i could find that would still clean a rat. the baby shampoo doesn't harm the sensitive skin of a baby and johnson doesn't have perfume additives so i went with that. works fine with cleaning the rats and no skin problems to date. i've been using it for nearly 4 years now.


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## tasha (Oct 16, 2006)

Thanks for the advice twitch!!


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## Shar (Feb 26, 2007)

My boys smell like corn chips and my girls smell like jasmine tea, grape soda or nothing at all...

The orange discoloration you are describing sounds like buck grease, but that would mean that one of your girls is a boy.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

hrm, one of my male appears to have the same thing going on his shoulder blades. What causes it?


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

It's just oily skin on account of their hormones. You can rub some olive oil into their skin and then soap them up with dish soap. Rinse them off and it's all gone.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Interesting. I need to do that with Bastian then.

He HATES getting washed XD


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