Yellowish Tail and Fur

Question
Hello, I adopted a young (12 weeks) rat a couple of days ago and noticed that her tail has got very light yellowish blotches and also the white bits of her fur have got a very light yellow tinge. I have no experience with rats and am not sure if it is bad enough to take her to the vet. #Can you help, please.

Answer
Though rats are usually very good at cleaning themselves, they often neglect their tail.  It can get stained in that way with urine.  Try putting some baby shampoo on a soft toothbrush, wetting her tail, then gently scrubbing and see if it will clean off.  Tails are notoriously hard to clean; sometimes they will look nasty but they won't come clean no matter what.  Don't worry too much about it if you wipe it and it doesn't come clean.  As long as it is not caked in urine, flaking off bits of skin, red, or has bumps, it should be just fine.

Fur can yellow for many reasons.  Mostly it is urine again, but it can also get stained with food, porphyrin (the rat's red tears), or simply with age.  If her skin is all right, not red, itchy, flaky, or bumpy then I again wouldn't worry about it.  If you could take a picture of the yellowness and email it to me at info@evergreenrattery.com I could help you better identify it.

Hope that helps, good luck with your rat!