Quote Originally Posted by Shann View Post
That looks just like something I've gotten before when I bought my rats from a local supplier. It's hard to tell from that distance, but the ones on mine turned out to be spined rat lice. According to the people on the forum I asked, it would have been fine to feed, and many rats have a couple on them, but the fact that the rat was covered in them meant that the rat may have been sick and not grooming itself. I never knew if it would have been safe to feed or not, because I took it back to the store and got my money back. Personally, I always try to be as careful as I can.

Thanks for the advice...after looking more into it, they do appear to be lice. I'm going to return them and head to the other pet store. Petsmart is right down the road so i went there first. They looked very clean at the store, but guess not so much. I'll head to Petco and see what they have. I've fed Petco mice before and they were clean, so maybe the rats will be the same.