Albino rats eyes seem to be getting darker.

Question
Hi.

I've noticed my albino's eyes are turning a darker red. It's really strange. We've obtained 2 new rats, so we've been trying to socializing them with the 2 we have. She doesn't seem to have any other problems, but she is pushing 4 years old.

Any ideas on this? I've tried the internet & come up empty.

Answer
Ruby red and pink eyes are common colors with rats, both light and dark colored fur.

It could be vascular changes due to her age. When the pupil becomes enlarged the eye will appear darker too. This may be happening especially considering her age.

Glaucoma as well as cataracts are common in rats, especially our grand senior rats, and sometimes can disturb vision to the point of blindness.
Fortunately  rats rely very little on their eye sight, and instead, they get used to using their other senses more to safely function in their environment. If rats were rated by an optician, they would measure probably 200/600 ! However, any eye problem that cause the eye to protrude or have discharge and cause the rat pain etc...needs treated right away.

Some folks think that if they hold an object before the rat in front of her eyes and she doesn't blink, she is blind, but this is not the way to test for vision loss since they can detect an object in front of them just by the way the vibration is using their whiskers. A rats whiskers act as another pair of eyes in a way.  They are an amazing thing, the whiskers, letting the rat know how wide a space is or what is in front of them or at the side of them too.

I have a rat right now that is totally blind and yet we don't know why. He is young, too, at just 16 months old. He has red eyes and was always a healthy little guy with the exception of some serious aggression that was resolved with a neuter when he was younger.  We think he had a stroke that caused his loss of vision but he also has some other odd signs of palsy, so it may be more neurological than we think.    

Do you notice she seems to lose her way more than normal?