Male Rat sneezes Female Albino has Porphyrin around her eyes occassionally

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

Templeton and Esmerelda.

Temp sneezes since we got him. I havnt heard anything in his breathing, he only sneezes when he is sniffing around inside/outside his cage. Sniff Sniff, blow/sneeze.

Esmerelda has porphyrin around her eyes ocassionaly, but she is an albino so it is noticeable..


I bought these two guys to breed them for food for Snakey (Mr. Snakes temporary name . Do the above symptoms mean i should not breed them? (well its too late, but I mean again)

Will they pass these "symptoms" on to their babies?

Thanks for the input.

I read on one website to give echniacia and or 1 chocolate chip daily to them to help them with this? Is this true... i thought chocolate was bad for them. (or is that just dogs hehe)

[xdeus]

What kind of substrate are you using? I have one albino that is a little sneezy, so I changed from pine to aspen and I'm hoping that will do the trick. Also, is the cage kept dry with a lot of air circulation?

[frankykeno]

First off here's a wonderful article on "red tears" just for you to read up on the whole scientific deal with it (I love this kinda stuff so bear with me).

http://www.ratbehavior.org/porphyrin.htm

Way back when we first got rats I did see more porphyrin production and it is more obviously seen on light/white rats due to coat color. We found with adjustments in our husbandry...bigger enclosures, more ventilation, replacing pine with aspen, less rats per cage, sorting rats so that really dominant ones aren't picking on smaller/weaker ones....we don't see it any longer in our colony. If you see it very occasionally it's not such a big deal, see it a lot it is something to be concerned about. As far as I'm aware (not a vet remember), it is an indicator of a stressed or ill rat so even a bit of it is a heads up to look at your rats setup or general health. It is not a breeding issue, it's a husbandry or health issue (unless the health issue precludes that adult from being a productive breeder of course or the underlying health issue is from a genetic defect).

The male with the sneezes may be a myco flareup or it could be a simple reaction to bedding. Since your female is showing stress reactions, perhaps the male is also reacting to the bedding. That would be my first step before considering any permanent solution...a bedding change and seperate the rats so they don't compete with each other and don't re-mate until you know what you wish to do or what you are dealing with. Give them a solid week, maybe even two, of that and see if you are getting any improvement.

Sound reasonable? Oh btw if you don't usually put them on aspen, pet store aspen is ridiculously overpriced....WalMart is way cheaper for aspen...or if you have a TSC farm supply store they have killer prices on HUGE bags of aspen.


~~Jo~~

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

I use carefresh bedding. Is that known to bother them?

I have 3 tanks, so I will get some more bedding and try a few different setups.


Thanks for the info! helpful asalways

[Jeanne]

I use carefresh bedding. Is that known to bother them?

I have 3 tanks, so I will get some more bedding and try a few different setups.


Thanks for the info! helpful asalways

Actually, your bedding is great... sounds like a myco flair up.

[SatanicIntention]

Carefresh is extremely dusty unless you screen-sift it first. I tried it ONCE and all of my rats had alot of problems with it. Itching, sneezing, etc. I use the shredded aspen from TSC now and it works great. You can get a 5.5cu. ft. bag for $8.65(or something close to that). I would get rid of the carefresh and find a good source for aspen. Check around at local feed stores.

It would also help to get each of them a same-sex cage buddy(meaning get another male and female pair and put them with their same-sex counterparts). That would reduce their stress.