nose bleeds

Question
a family friend of mine had a rat and unknowingly to her it was pregnant. after having the babies she gave me two of the babies. they are only about 2 months old and one of our rats seems to have nose bleeds frequently. she is on a regular rat diet and has shavings as bedding. often times she sneezes and sniffles. at first i thought it was cute but noticing the nose bleeds that she is having i have thoughts that it is more then just her personality. what should i do?

Answer
 The 'bleeding' is actually porphyrin, which is the rat's normal red-tinted mucus.  It small amounts it is normal around the eyes and nose but since they are showing excess porphyrin and are sneezing and sniffling it sounds like they have a minor respiratory infection.  Rats are very prone to respiratory infections and are normally caused by pine or cedar bedding, stress, irritants in the air (cigarette smoke, ammonia from an unclean cage, incense, etc), and poor ventilation in their cage (like with an aquarium or plastic hamster cage).  Sometimes they are more genetically prone to them and even if you do things right they will still get them.  The only way to treat them is to take them to a vet for a course of antibiotics which usually does the trick if you get it taken care of early.  Though respiratory infections usually aren't fatal unless left for many months without treatment, the longer you wait the harder it will be to cure it and since it weakens their immune systems it will most likely allow other bacteria to thrive and eventually cause premature death.

 Well I hope that helps answer your question, good luck with your rats!