colds

Question
hi,
i bought 2 rats about 3 weeks ago, and i did everything that i was instucted to do for them. Recently they have both been sneezing and one of them is very jumpy even at the slightest sound. i have also noticed blood splaters all around the cage and this morning i was holding one of them and noticed she has dried blood round her nose. Do they both have colds and what do i need to do for them if they do?

Answer
Hi Holly

I take it this is the first time you have had rats. Welcome to the rat world.  I am not sure who instructed you on rat care but often pet stores give very bad advice. Half the time I go around and end up reporting many stores to corpoprate because of poor care in the small animal section including the avian and reptile section.

For starters, they should be in a cage and not a tank and should be on either aspen or carefresh or a few others that are good but never pine, cedar, corn cob or regular cat litter.  They need a cage for good air circulation.  If not this can cause them to develop respiratory illnesses in rats right off. Proper diet is important as it is to any living creature, man nor beast :D   The worst diet to give a rat besides random table scraps!   They should be fed a high quality rodent block instead with plenty of vegetables and fruits and also meats.

As for the blood you see around her nose...it is NOT blood. It is called porphryin. This porphyrin is produced by a gland located behind the rats eyes called the harderian gland. When the rat is stressed due to certain factors in their life such as a new home, new cagemate or loss of a cagemate the harderian gland produces more than normal of it and it gets all around the eyes and nose which prompts us to take the rats to the vet thinking it is blood.  Rats do not get colds, but they do get respiratory  infections that mock colds and can cause sneezing, coughing sounds etc....
When the rat sneezes, porphyrin spatters all over their bedding etc...

Please refer to my website right away to read up on respiratory infection caused by mycoplasmosis.

Also your little  rat is still skittish. She needs time to adjust and some rats need more time than others, but you do need to trust train her. I have had tons upon tons of people write to  me asking how to train a scared rat or a rat that even bites and I found myself repeating the same thing over and over again day after day so I finally added a page to my website so I can refer everyone there instead of typing it all out.

Here is the URL to read how to train a little rat when they are shy or when  they bite.  

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/helpbitingscaredrats.htm

Also, please read up on mycoplasmosis.

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/mycoplasmosispage.htm


It sounds like your rats need  to see the vet and should be put on antibiotics for a few weeks.
If you need help finding a  vet please let me know!

Sandy