barbering

[Skye]

Barbering is often seen in caged mice where one removes fur of others in a dominance action.

My questions are - have any of you experienced this with your mice you keep, and also, has anyone ever seen any evidence of barbering i.e. bald spots in mice they have purchased from any other suppliers?

Thanks,

[lockshockbarrel]

I have expierienced this with rats, it's not always the dominant one, the most submissive rat of mine has nibbled off the ear-fur of all the other rats in the cage. Here's a pic of them all together. (I was bored, so I made them a cake. They LOVED it) The barberer is the white (technically himilayan) one you can barely see underneath the mismarked black girl. If you look closely you can see the black girl's barbered ears too.


http://www.cyberpawz.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10051/normal_pics%20025.jpg

[Skye]

wow! a cake - that really does look good enough to eat - how adorable :)

ok guys - anyone else on the barbering issue?

[DAND]

I've seen it happen with my mice. When weaned I will put males in one tub and females in another. It seems to be the males that are doing it. I haven't seen it happen in the female only tub. The males seem to do it to the females too. When I set up a new breeding group sometimes a female will or two will show signs of it.

[CornCrazy]

I used to see it in some pet store mice I had. It was always a dominant female in my colonies that did it, though. Since then, I've gotten all new mice (lab strain), and I have not seen any more barbering.