Im not sure if my rat is sick...

Question
Hi there, my boyfriend and i bought two rats a weeks ago but one of them sometimes goes into fits of sneezing/coughing.  There is no sounds of gurgling or raspy breathing coming from her chest and no clicking noises coming from her nasal cavity or poryphin around the eyes or nose to indicate a respiratory or other illness. However it seems to happen at least once every couple of days where she goes into bouts of sneezing/coughing for a period of more then 3 minutes. It does seem to happen more when we put her back in her cage after handling her but we use Aspen bedding and have cleaned out her cage once already to keep down on dust. Any help would be greatly appreciated since we're new at this.  

Answer
She could be allergic to the bedding. What brand of aspen do you buy? Some aspen is more chippy and chunky and dusty... Petco's large bags of aspen are like that, but walmarts aspen bedding is finely shaven and not dusty at all. It could be bothering her nasal passages. Sneezing is important for a rat to do but does not usually indicate an actual illness. Try switching bedding if you have to but never use pine or cedar. If these bouts of sneezing go away, she very well could have just been allergic to the bedding itself.

Watch for listlessness, loss of appetite, not drinking, behavior changes, porphyrin around the eyes and nose that lingers for several days (porph is a red substance secreted during illness or stress, it is not blood but looks like it)...