Quote Originally Posted by Lana's_mom View Post
I picked up 2 rats yesterday to feed to 2 of my pythons. It turns out my biggest python is in shed and won't eat, so I was saving these rats for later. Both rats are sneezing up a storm, and I am quite urked with the store I got them from since they chaged me over twice what they are worth. It looks like one of the rats has the crimped looking hair and I was thinking of putting into my breeding colony. Does anyone know of a way to treat for a possible RI at home? I have these rats in a separate room across the house from my colonies.
Sneezing is one of the initial symptoms of upper respiratory disease in rats. It is also a very normal reaction to air-borne irritants, dust, the wrong type of bedding (cedar or pine). I have noticed that many new rats go through a sneezy stage when they first arrive at a new home. Many people ask the same question that you are when they first get rats. What you need to do is to be aware of other signs of upper respiratory disease. If your rat is sneezing very often, or showing red, porphyrin stains at the eyes and nose, or sounding congested, or losing weight, or having difficulty breathing-- labored breathing-- We just put them down so it doesn't effect our colonies. Now the rat with the crimped hair that guy there is what we call a Rex. Which is pretty cool rat since it can produce hairless rats if it is a true rex rat. The true way to tell if it's a rexy is if the whiskers are curled aswell. good luck...