What Health Problems Do Albino Animals Have?

Albinism is a lack of melanin (pigment) in hair and skin. If it is lacking in the skin, it is also probably lacking in the brain, where lies the biggest problem.

There's a lot of evidence to show that albino animals are more prone to neurological (nervous system) problems than non-albinos. Ironically, the famous white mice that we are used to seeing in laboratories, may be among the worst affected. They lack receptors for some chemicals because of their lack of melanin; as such, they should not be used in most clinical research.

In her book Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin goes into a lot of detail about why albino or nearly albino animals (such as Dalmatians and painted horses with blue eyes) make bad pets and unpredicatable livestock, due to their neurological problems.

Albino animals are also very prone to sunburn, deafness, vision and immunological disorders.

Please don't think all these things necessarily apply to albino people, though. Intelligence in humans, for instance, is much more complicated than how many melanin receptors you have.

Health problems aren't too much of an issue for animals in this state but they are more subject to sun. One of the biggest issues for animals with this condition is they cannot hide in anyway from those that may be hunting them or from the animals they would normally eat. Since they cannot hide very well getting food is very hard and due to this many of them do not live very long.

They can easily be seen when trying to hide and even rejected.