2017-02-26 18:21 #0 by: Zickan

Have your rat one or more bald spots? Then barbering be the cause.

Barbering is a common description of a behavior in rats when a varying degree of polish, pull or bite off his own or other rats fur. Looking bare patches around example, front and rear legs, it is usually just the rat barber itself. But if the patches are sitting in hard to reach or strange places such as the back of the neck, it is most likely another rat that has barbering his / her cage friends.

There is no such thing as "barbering gene". That is, one thing you can not look back in a pedigree and find any gene that has been passed down and that creates barbering in the rat. What is inherited is a stereotyped behavior. However, a rat with this stereotypical behavior can have a perfectly normal offspring and vice versa. The progeny may also have too few offspring are normal, but suddenly can start barbera in a different environment. Other stereotypical behaviors, for example, grid-chewing or excessive oral behavior by chewing furnishings in the cage, etc.

All stereotypical behavior (including barbering) is the expression of the rat feel bad and do not fit into their environment. Usually, it is about an over-stimulated active rat or a rat with a low-stress threshold. Worth thinking about when a rat is barbering. It often also exhibits other symptoms for not be stress resistant, for example, can be observed when introducing a new flock member or the rat is relocated/change envoriment.

The biggest cause of barbering has to do with the environment. The rat may live to small, are tired of the decor of the cage, wrong food or anything else related to their daily lives. Active rats need much stimulation and easily stressed rats need security - lack of this can create a stereotypic behavior in the form of barbering. A stereotypic behavior may also result in the rat chewing manically on the cage bars, or chew apart the interior of the cage. Even rats with low-stress threshold threaten to barbera, almost like how some nervous people chew their nails.
Although the cause of barbers insertion behavior is addressed, it is not certain that the rat will stop barbera. The behavior can change to a nasty habit, and it takes time to manage to break this pattern.

Some things you can try to break the stereotyped behavior is:

  •  Change scenery
  • Larger cage
  • New fun things and vary the furnishing of the interior
  • More activation outside the cage, such as agility
  • Replacement of feed
  • Let rat/rats work a little for the food/treats by giving them all the nuts or eggs, in the shell, hiding food in an old egg carton or in a paper role with blocked ends.