Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a male rat, that I have in a breeding colony that I am just setting up, who keeps sneezing. I imagine it is a respiratory infection. The other rats in there are not doing this. Can anyone tell me why and what I need to do to cure him? Thanks in advanced for any info!

What are you keeping them on? If it is cedar get them off of it. pine is better, not the best, but better. I notice my rats sneeze a bit to. (I put the pet rats on aspen and it has stopped) it may be because the shavings are dusty.

If it looks like he has blood coming out his nose, don't flip out, they get a red mucusy stuff that comes out of their nose when they are sick.

Otherwise, whack the male and get another one before he transfers any colds to the other rats.

They also get the red mucusy stuff when they are really stressed out.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose, 1.0 red blood

I am keeping them on aspen shavings. I have not seen any mucus coming out at all. Will it cause a delay in breeding if I get a new one?

If it's a new colony, the male could be sneezing due to stress at the change of environment. Aspen is also dusty so that could be a cause as well. (at least all the aspen I have used I find quite dusty, more than pine is anyway) If the sneezing doesn't stop in a few days, then I would either get a new male, (course, if the females are already pregnant, he may wind up eating the babies, unless they have been pregnant only a short time, he may not realize they are not his by the time they have the babies. I really don't thik rats can keep track of time that well).

Another posibility is the male is actually allergic to the aspen. Some rodents are more sensitive to certain bedding. You could try switching to pine or just newspaper (though it would smell more) for a few days and see if the male continues sneezing (I would wait for a week to see if he stops sneexing on the aspen, just in case it's just stress from being in a new environment). If neither of this works, then it could be a food allergy, watch for excessive scratching, loss of hair and health deterioation. Finally, it could be a respiratory infection or other commong rat disease (myco..something)

>>I have a male rat, that I have in a breeding colony that I am just setting up, who keeps sneezing. I imagine it is a respiratory infection. The other rats in there are not doing this. Can anyone tell me why and what I need to do to cure him? Thanks in advanced for any info!

Rats sneeze when stressed. Nearly all rats in the pet trade have mycoplasmosis and, when stressed, will manifest symptoms. Sounds like the male is more stressed and or not dealing with the aspen well. I have rats on pelleted bedding (rabbit pellets/cellsorb/yesterday's news) and it reduces physical stressors a lot. If it isn't going beyond sneezing, then I would tend to try to lower the dust and let him be. If he gets worse it is either more than myco or he is very susceptible and you will likely want to freeze him off and get a new one. Treating them can get costly, unless you think you can get meds and will need them for the whole colony. Baytril is usually the drug of choice. But it won't do a lot if the dust is still there.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
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