power grooming

[tikeyas_mom]

my rats have been hosued together since birth, lately I have noticed that pippin has power groomed soo hard that he has left merry with bald spots and tiny scabs under his chin!!! could this be power grooming gone to far?? or an outcome of a fight??

[luckies4me]

Sounds more like mites/lice to me. Could also be you are feeding them too much protein which makes them overly itchy. You would know if they were fighting trust me. Want to see all the pics I have taken of battle scared ratties? Trust me, you would deffinately know. Force grooming is natural and helps them find out who is the leader. It can get bad, as in hair missing but not scabs. Wrinkles barbers (that's what it's called) all my girls and will pick out the hair by their ears, but never leaves scabs. I have never had a rat leave tiny scabs, so my first thought would be mites/lice.

[wolfsoul]

Unfotunatly I'm facing a lice infestation right now. Only Frisco though. I assume it's because Frisco's immunity is weaker than Icarus'. So I'm very unhappy.

Brush through their fur, and if it is lice, you should be able to see tiny little eggs that look like specks of dust in their fur.

[tikeyas_mom]

I just combed through merry and pippins hair and they dont have lice eggs or mites..

[tikeyas_mom]

luckies can you post pics of battle wonds for me to see, you can pm them to me if you want so that it doesnt offend anyone on here. I really want to know if they got into a fight. it looks liek the scabs under merrys chin are healing they are hard. and REALLY tiny, their is only like 3 of them ..