Hair loss?

[wolfy-hound]

From the website: http://www.rattyrat.com/guidebook/colors.html
"Rats molt throughout their lives, loosing old hair, and gaining new hair. While they are molting they will have patches of lighter, softer hair throughout their bodies. This is more noticeable in babies. If they have a hairless gene in their background, or if they are a rex, they may even develop bald patches while molting."

So it's possible that rats develop bald patches while molting in certain circumstances.

That's not saying it's due to molting, but it's one possibility. The skin in the pictures doesn't look red or irritated or injured as if the rat was scratching itself. Usually if hair is scratched out the skin is damaged, this is true in most mammals and I deal with dogs doing it on a regular basis.

[boadaddy]

I've had rats molt in patches and low and behold they were doing just that molting, weird no ring worm. Hard to say with the OP's rat since they're banned and the rat in question is obviously not alive and kicking. Plus dude said he had 15 of other rats in with her and none of the others had it, isn't ring worm highly contagious??? So obviously not ring worm get that out of your head quick draw lmao!!!

[wolfy-hound]

Just because ringworm is highly contagious doesn't mean that every mammal in contact will get it. We see dogs or cats in a single household where only one will contract ringworm and show signs while no one else ever gets it.

I personally have handled animals with ringworm(I didn't know they had it before, obviously, *skin crawls*) and not gotten ringworm, neither have many owners of cats that handle their cats daily, with the cat having diagnosed ringworm. So it's not a given that all the rats would have ringworm. Additionally, the other rats may not have been showing any signs of ringworm YET, and then shown the ringworm later, but since the OP was banned, we never heard, or he never bothered to post the info. There's no telling.

[Rhasputin]

I guess in the end, we are discussing a rat that's certainly dead by now, from a user that's banned.

[jasbus]

Alright I just couldn't leave it alone. It's driving me nuts!!!

So, I went out and found some molting rats. I had to go through every grow out rack, and wouldn't you know, the last drawer had this one rat... I usually have at least 800 rats in grow out bins. It is rare that they actually molt like this, but it does happen.
These two pics are from this morning. I will put this rat aside, and I will take more pics of the same rat when the molt is done.
So, is this proof enough? Or, do I have to mail this rat to you, so you can watch it molt???

[reptilegirl07]

mail it to me

[jasbus]

mail it to me

[wolfy-hound]

You can't mail rodents! That's discussing illegal activities!! Shame!!

*bwah ha ha ha ha, sorry, couldn't keep typing with a straight face.

Thanks for finding patchy molting rat. Is his name now "Patchy"?

[jasbus]

You can't mail rodents! That's discussing illegal activities!! Shame!!

*bwah ha ha ha ha, sorry, couldn't keep typing with a straight face.

Thanks for finding patchy molting rat. Is his name now "Patchy"?

Yeah, we'll call it "Patchy" until it molts, then it'll just be "Rat".... As in "I'm a normal rat without ringworm that molts in patches".

[jasbus]

Oh, wait... I just found another rat with patches.. Oh CRAP! My colony has ringworm....What will I do?

Want pictures of that one too?