Excessive Shedding?

I've noticed for a while now (say.... like.... 3-4 weeks maybe?) that Pepper's been shedding a lot more than normal. None of it seems to be from fur slip and he hasn't been giving himself a bad haircut, no bald spots or anything, but there's been a lot more dead grey fur coming out than normal, to the point where his coat looks a little tufty and unkempt and I'm finding big gobs of dead hair in the cage and clinging to his hammock especially. He's acting normally and eating/drinking fine, he's actually a bit heavier right now than what he normally is - he's gained 10g or so in the 2 weeks since I last weighed him (normally I try and weigh every week on the same day but the last few months have been slightly sporadic as I've been sick quite a lot and I'm in the home stretch of school) and he weighed in today at 765g where normally he's high 740s to low 750s. No dietary changes, he eats Oxbow pellets and gets loose and cubed timothy hay. If anything he's been getting fewer treats as of late, but he's also not particularly active and likes to laze around quite a bit. He is in a room that gets natural light but I don't know if chins shed seasonally or if the days getting longer would affect his shedding. Should I try dusting him more often? I've been letting him dust usually once a week or so because he tends to get dry spots on his ears and is a major drama queen about letting me put Bag Balm or anything on his ears (its like the end of the world, seriously). I wouldn't think he'd have a nutritional deficiency since he's eating plenty and on a pretty good diet but I can't get a look at his teeth to see the colour just yet (I tried, he was NOT happy especially after the manhandling it took to get him on the scale.... will try again later).



Is it possible he just needs a bit of a good combing? As far as I know he's never had any kind of grooming aside from dust baths and knowing him, a combing wouldn't go over so well, but there's definitely a lot of dead hair hanging around in his coat (and showing up in big gobs everywhere x.x I think I need to get a chin-only lint roller for all of his fleece items...).