Dark fur appearing on my gerbils' backs?

[A Gerbil]

I'll make this short: I noticed that one of my gerbils have a dark line on their back, is this to do with him molting? I read somewhere that it was something to do with molting, but I just thought I'd check.

Also, on my other gerbil, he has some slightly darker fur appearing on his back. He's white/very light grey in colour, and has some slightly darker grey fur appearing. Is this to do with him molting as well?

Thank you for any help! I know it's probably nothing, and they both seem perfectly normal aside from these lines appearing.

[fysha]

Without a picture it would be hard to say, but it sounds like they are molting lines. So really nothing to worry about.

[betty]

If they are young gerbils and happen to be a nutmeg of some sort, then the dark patches could be the new coat coming through (as nutmegs all get darkers coats as they grow up).

The stripe is likely moulting too - but on a non-colour changing coat colour.

Sometimes darker patches can be found on the agouti coats if the top of the hair is rubbed or chewed off (as the undercoat of these gerbils is a different colour to the top). If you rub the tip of the hair off these coats they look like they have a different colour patch. I had it with some light grey CP Agoutis before, they got themselves dark grey patches on their backs. It soon grew back normally.

[A Gerbil]

I searched for a couple of pictures of molting lines, and they're very similar to what my two gerbils have.

Thank you both for your help!

[Lexy.]

Dont worry this happend to my gerbil he was ginger and then slowely turned brown sometimes they change colour but goes back to ginger again.

[Not a cat]

So my gerbil is a year old and I just noticed how far is starting to get darker it might be because it’s getting colder it’s either her molding or her partner getting lighter in color but it’s nothing to worry about if your gerbil is getting lighter in color am I just because it’s getting warmer or it could be because it’s melting

[Markpd]

Melting? I guess you meant moulting?

Btw, this thread was posted 5yrs ago