# Is molting in some mice related to coloration?



## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

Two of the mice I acquired from a pet shop (one appears to be a poor example of a brindled grey and white - and has become obese recently) actually started losing hair not too long after I purchased them. I would guess that I bought them at about 3 weeks of age, which is around puberty time, so I'm guessing that the molting had something to do with that.

Funny thing is, their colors got much, much darker in the spots where they molted. The 'spots' were areas of the fur that became much thinner, without a clear outline.

They are both perfectly healthy now (they are about 3 months, I believe) and have not had any other signs of possible illness at all.

Their brother, whom I also purchased, fathered what I can only describe as.. half brindled and half 'dark pearl' babies (with an unrelated female). Seeing as I've heard that the pearls are so rare, I must be mistaking my colors.. anyway..!

Today, I read something about a correlation between molting and golden mice & pearl colored mice. I can't even find the webpage I read this from..

Does anyone know anything specific about why certain mice molt? Also, is it correlated with certain colorations? *Does anyone know anything really about molting mice?*

Thanks for all your help in advance!


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

Siamese are particularly prone to molting. Some other varieties are, too. PEW can't molt (or more specifically, can't show molt lines), for obvious reasons.

Can you post pictures?


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## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

Hmm, that is interesting.

I will try to post pictures by tonight (I need to take new ones since the old ones are when they were babies and much lighter in color).


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## windyhill (Jan 19, 2010)

I beleive all mice molt, but it only shows on certain colors.
When my brindles molt, then tend to look very sooty and overmarked, but it clears up and goes back to the way they looked before.


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## Wight Isle Stud (May 19, 2010)

A Mouse Moulting requires a lot of protein in its diet. If you want to avoid moult marks, dont breed with the doe untill she is 16 weeks old. From an old fancier of 120 years old. - ok, well we all carry knowledge to the next generations dontwe !!


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## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

I just realized, Jack, that you meant pictures of the actual molting? Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of when that was happening, and none of my mice have molted (or are molting) since.
*
Windyhill *- The molters I have were both what I believe to be very poor examples of grey on white brindled. Oddly, though, after the molting, their colors were strikingly darker overall.

*I'll be back *- The two does who went through this molting period did so when very young - when they were around 4 weeks old - so I know this wasn't a post-pregnancy thinning of hair.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Gray and white brindles often change colours when moulting. Some even do it several times over. :lol: 
I think someone recently posted a thread titled 'Tiva the amazing colour changing mouse' in which their brindle changed colours multiple times. Very interesting to see.


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## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

Oh! That makes sense.  Hmm, I'm going to go find that thread, that sounds very cool.


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Sorry! It was on another forum, here you go: http://mouselovers.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... iva#p11888


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## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

Oh! Thank you! :lol:


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