Thinning fur

[Stackie]

I was wondering if anyone has seen this before. I noticed a few months ago my big boy Diesel had some fur clumps sticking out on his butt and figured he was just priming. These past few weeks however I have noticed a large amount of fur scattered through his cage (he is in a cage by himself) and it appears the fur on his butt his thinning out. The fur in his cage is clumped, doesn't really look like fur slips. I used a #3 grooming comb on him tonight and got a large amount of fur (attached), and that's not even all of it. It's hard to judge in the picture but it is about a 6" x 6" patch. His fur is considerably thinner on his back/butt area.

Nothing has changed- he has been eating Manna Pro Sho for about a year now, temp is kept at a constant 68 degrees, in the cage by himself, dust baths (Blue Cloud) twice a week.

Any ideas?

 

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

Often chins blow fur when the weather turns warm even if the temp in their environment hasn't changed.

 

[Stackie]

I figured they might do something like that, but this seems a little excessive. His fur is noticeably thinner and I can see his skin in some spots. It's kind of patchy, and isn't a smooth missing chunk like a fur slip.

 

[lilcutie0480]

I agree, chins can drop a lot of fur due to weather or new fur coming in. Last year, around this same time my chin had patchy fur with gaps where I could see his skin. He never had the issue before so I took him to the vet. Check for redness on the exposed skin, monitor the growth of the previous bald patches. My vet said it was probably stress related & he hasn't had a problem since it. I hope that helps.

 

[becky12883]

I pulled tons of fur out of my cages last cleaning. I think since the weather here went from freezing to 80s-90s in two days (literally) the boys shed fast and furiously. I even had a big handful of BV fur which he seems to shed extremely less than my mosaic boys. The temp never really changed in the house though that I noticed (heat on directly to ac on! Only in Wisconsin).