Do hairless mice groom?

by EverythingAnimal Sun 11 Sep 2016, 9:51 pm

No reason I need to know, I'm just curious. Do hairless mice preform any sort of grooming behaviors to themselves or other (haired) mice?

by River Mon 12 Sep 2016, 10:25 am

Yep! They do still need to clean themselves, and like to show affection and/or dominance by grooming others. Or at least, that's how it works in hairless rats, so I imagine its the same for mice.

by MouseLover Mon 12 Sep 2016, 10:32 am

I've never had a hairless mouse, but I'm almost 100% certain that the answer would be yes. Grooming behaviours in mice are really instinctive behaviours, and the absence of fur wouldn't change that. It's such a strong instinct in mice to groom, that's why they can be vulnerable to OCD-like excessive grooming and scratching.

by EverythingAnimal Mon 12 Sep 2016, 3:06 pm

Interesting! That makes sense. The more you know, I guess.

by DVirginiana Tue 13 Sep 2016, 5:01 am

I imagine they do. I have a hairless rat and she grooms just like my others do. One problem is that the other rats will do social grooming a bit more roughly than she does, and end up scratching her because she has no hair to protect her skin. I imagine that problem would happen when hairless mice are in with ones that have hair as well. It can cause issues because she reacts to the pain by freaking out, which causes the 'alpha' lady rat to get angry (because a member of the colony is acting insane about normal social grooming and she has no idea why) and can start fights.

by MesaMouse Wed 14 Sep 2016, 6:08 pm

DVirginiana wrote:I imagine they do. I have a hairless rat and she grooms just like my others do. One problem is that the other rats will do social grooming a bit more roughly than she does, and end up scratching her because she has no hair to protect her skin. I imagine that problem would happen when hairless mice are in with ones that have hair as well. It can cause issues because she reacts to the pain by freaking out, which causes the 'alpha' lady rat to get angry (because a member of the colony is acting insane about normal social grooming and she has no idea why) and can start fights.

Gee, I'd never thought about that but can certainly see how her pained reactions could cause resentment and anger in her colony-mates.

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