What caused this very bad looking tail?

[OKNutkin]

I have a very fat squirrrel who has been eating my very expensive bird seed and he has a very hairless tail. He or she? looks pretty well nourished all but the tail. What do you think caused this problem? Will my seed help?

[SammysMom]

Easier to see resized

[Skul]

I'm of the opinion it is a natural molt.
I see it occur with nearly all the squirrels in this area.
Being that the loss is noticed on most of the critters and is spread out over several months. I tend to think it's normal.
Tails re-grow after a few weeks.

[Garden71]

I have had a few wilds by me with the same problems. Their tails do grow back nice and full.

[island rehabber]

I saw this same phenomenon on another rehabber's overwintering squirrel years ago. We called him Fat Boy/Skinny Tail because he was perfectly round, but with a rat tail. His two siblings in the same enclosure eating the same food were completely normal with fluffy tails. By the time spring arrived, you couldn't tell FB/ST from his sibs -- he had slimmed down and grown a beautiful bottlebrush tail!

[Jackie in Tampa]

Originally Posted by Skul

I'm of the opinion it is a natural molt.
I see it occur with nearly all the squirrels in this area.
Being that the loss is noticed on most of the critters and is spread out over several months. I tend to think it's normal.
Tails re-grow after a few weeks.

hate to say it...I disagree..I am not a pro or anything, but that is NOT normal molt! NO hell no!
That is broke off fur...
like split end damage on human hair..
molt means fall out and be replaced, that hair is broken hair.

It appears to be odd lengths...
do you see this sq often?
does his tail ever curl like a donut? pug dog tail?

sorry to disagree, but I do.
It could be from bad diet, fight...and it may come back perfect, BUT THAT IS NOT NORMAL MOLT...in a wild sq.

[Sweet Simon's Mommy]

my dogs tail will do that when she chews on it from allergies.
I used to use Frebreeze sprays and she would chew and pull the hair off her tail. It was thin and different lengths.

[Jackie in Tampa]

anytime I have ever had a sq from someone that was feeding human baby formula I see this tail, uneven growing and bad nutrition.
Anytime I have a sq with severe nerve damage and they curl their tails like a pug dog, it breaks their hair off and it looks like this...
also a sq with bad bug issues will look like this..normal molt does not.
NOT IN TAMPA!

[virgo062]

Knotheads tail looked just like that a few months ago....I fed him ensure (not sure if that helped) but his tail grew back beautifully...BTW Knothead is a non releaseable Lord is he non releaseable

[pappy1264]

Last year, Precious' tail got like that (she was wintered over, along with her siblings. A couple of the others had some fur loss on the tail, but none like hers.) It took a few months, but did grew back in normal before they were released. They ate good, had UV lights inside, ate hhb's, etc. They never got any redness or scabs, just the fur loss. Never treated with anything, never changed diet, it just grew back, so I don't know what caused it. Godiva has some fur loss on her tail now, but I suspect with her having the babies and not coming out to eat when the others were in there (they are outside now, and she is eating much better), it has something to do with that in her case. Is there fur loss anywhere else or just the tail?