hairloss

Question
hi there, i know for a fact that one of my female ratty's is barbering herself on her arms and her companion on the back of her neck. Her neck now has a big bald patch any ideas on how to stop the rat from doing this to the other one ?

Answer
Hi Nicola

Barbering can be pretty tricky because there is usually an underlying reason why the rat has resorted to this type of behavior.  It is considered a behavioral problem and can be due to boredom, stress related or simply a sign of a very dominant rat especially since she is also doing it to her cage mate.
Unfortunately, there is no real "cure" for barbering other than to treat any problems with the skin that may occur such as local infection from raw skin or irritation. A vet may want to do a skin scraping to see if there are any parasites that may cause severe itching too. It would not hurt to rule that out as well.
If you suspect the rat is bored, you can always increase play time out of the cage, add toys or other things that may keep her busy rather than take out her boredom by barbering herself and her cage mate excessively.
If you believe for some reason the rat is stressed out, it wouldn't hurt to re-evaluate her health and also her surroundings to be sure there is nothing that is stressing her such as a pet outside her cage such as a stalking cat or dog.  I once knew a rat that would barber herself raw because she was stressed out over the house cat that slept on top of her cage.  Once the cat was no longer allowed around the cage, she stopped with the barbering.
Its more or less a process of elimination for now...

If it continues, seeking the help from a vet would not be a bad idea.  Often behavior problems can be corrected with a mild anti-anxiety medication such as a daily low dose of valium.  This often works miracles in rats with behavior problems such as excessive barbering.

Hope this helps.