Help with tail hair just falling off in chunks😳

[Charley Chuckles]

My Conker boy is almost 13 he acts like a 2 yo his fur is shiny he gets an excellent diet...... situation I started noticing pieces of his tail on his floor. It's more like on the underside but if this continues he will have a rat tail🙄
Any ideas could he use something in his system like coconut oil is his body lacking something 🤷
He gets HHB and I also make Harland blocks deconstructed with yogurt, baby food, FV much like boo balls so it's softer easer for him to eat as he only has nubs for inscisores.

I welcome any advice/ ideas 💡

[CritterMom]

Abby, I think that is a late summer awkward "pre-molt." One area where out indoor squirrels lack is our ability to follow day length properly. Everything that happens seasonably - leaves changing color in the fall, shedding seasonal coats and growing the next seasons coat, animals starting to prep their nests and dens is ALL triggered by the length of the day, NOT temperature. Where I am in the winter, starting work at 7AM and leaving at 4PM means driving both ways in the DARK. But I certainly don't live that way - we have artificial lighting going until much later in the day and earlier in the morning for some. It screws up a lot of things and I think molting is one of them. Both Mister P and now Zeke have had a period at the end of summer where their fur looks just awful. New growth begins where the tail meets the butt and goes in both directions - to the tip of the tail in one and up the back heading toward the head on the other. I am betting that in the next couple months you will see a thick "donut" of fur starting at the base of his tail and in no time it will creep all over him and he will have his handsome winter coat. Once his toupee, which he will likely also get, settles down a little

[Charley Chuckles]

Thank you...
That would be great he's so handsome hate the ugly tail look.... May have to get him a tail toup 🤣

[Tashahaven]

I agree it is probably being influenced, by humans/artificial lighting/molting….

BUT STILL….CONKERS LOOKS SO HANDSOME!! I never would’ve noticed! He is such a good looking “young man!”

❤️❤️conkers❤️❤️