The redness is called porphyrin and it is just their nasal/ocular discharge. It is normally red. He could have allergies to the dust(most likely as it is pine and can cause alot of problems, especially in animals that do not have fur to protect them from the oils in pine), he could be stressed, or he could have an allergy to something else. Get rid of the pine. That's the first thing to do. Make sure the diet is ok and they have enough water. Ventilation is a common problem, and rats need ALOT of it.


You should have done your research before getting hairless rats thinking they would be good breeders. Your pet store "friend" isn't too bright. He may be breeding rats that look normal, but carry the hairless gene, therefore he gets hairless babies. Hairless rats, about 99.98% of the time, do not do pregnancy/birthing/rearing well. They may carry a pregnancy to term, but delivery can be a very big problem leading to hemorrhaging(bleeding out), eating of babies because of stress, and the mothers usually do not produce enough milk to feed any number of babies. I bred a hairless female ONCE. She had around 8 babies, but ate all but two. She barely produced enough milk for those two, and while they were growing, they were thin and slightly dehydrated. As soon as I could, I weaned them(3 weeks or so) and they bounced back. They are small rats now(around 190-200g), and I think the malnutrition at birth contributed to their stunted growth.

www.rattiusmaximus.com

Maybe use a hairless male and breed him with normal looking females. Then raise the female babies(they will all have hair but will carry the hairless gene) back up and breed them back to their father. You will get half hairless and half haired.

Just some things to think about.

Plus, feeding hairless rats to snakes wouldn't be a very fun experience. No hair= no roughage to hold feces together= fun, runny poo. WHEE!