# Hair loss in young curly-coat mouse?



## Tsucass (May 31, 2012)

Hello-

Recently, I acquired a few albino curly-coated mice from the local pet shop. Two are still nursing. The adult's fur has straightened out quite a bit, which I gather is usually normal for poorly bred curlies. However, one of the baby curlies is exhibiting dramatic hair loss below his shoulder. There wouldn't appear to be any parasites on him. The fur remains on his belly, but on his hind legs,rump, and back, he's lost a lot of hair. What remains is whispy puffs. You can quite clearly see the skin under the whisps. What would be causing this?


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

If they're Frizzies(recessive Rex) then that could explain the hair loss. When I was breeding Fuzzies(their ancestors were from a pet store) they would lose alot of fur around their shoulders/head area. I search uncovered that there were multiple other cases of Frizzies losing fur as well. I think they just have bad skin/fur genetically. I wouldn't suggest breeding them if they continue to have problems. It's not worth it, trust me!


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## madmouse (May 19, 2012)

Are frizzies and fuzzies the same thing? I have fuzzies and yes, some of them have coats which are *very* sparse arcross the shoulders and around the rump.


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## Tsucass (May 31, 2012)

@love2read- Not sure on the ancestry or genetics of the curly-coats, the pet store I get them from just gets mice from a large scale distributor, so no real way to track that kind of thing. I'm thinking that maybe he was moulting, he looks like he has more hair than he did yesterday...


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

Madmouse- no, Frizzy and Fuzzy are 2 different genes. Fuzzy is Fuzzy(lol), while Frizzy is Recessive Rex. Frizzies are pretty rare these days simply because everyone has moved on to Rexes instead since they're dominant and thus easier to breed and they also hold their curl better.

Here are a couple pics of 2 of my Frizzy Texels when they were losing their fur:


















They lost it around the 6-week mark and kept getting it back and then losing it again in cycles, so it seems to be related to molt-cycles. They just have REALLY bad molts.  I did have a couple that didn't have any problems, so if you decide to keep and breed them I would suggest holding onto any babies until they're at least 6 weeks old and then cull the ones that have hair loss and only breed the ones that don't. Perhaps will a few generations of careful breeding you can weed out the fur issues?

From what I've read, Frizzy mixed with Rex has the potential to improve the curls on Rex. Of course, it won't help at all if they're having hair loss.


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