Picked up a small breeding group from Petco 1.3 to try my hand at breeding my own and noticed that they all sneeze almost constantly. We've had them for about three weeks. I had them on pine than switched to Carefresh than switched to aspen this crap is getting a little out of hand. I want the healthiest rats for my snakes but think they might have a URI any ideas?

Any rats with any signs of illness or issues don't last very long around here...

How are the rats behaving? Listless, not drinking or eating?

Dust from the bedding can make them sneeze, but if it is more serious sneezing especially if the nose area is red and raw. I'd start over with some healthier ones.

They are very active eating great on carrots, romaine and turkey bacon with rat block available at all times. No sign of them being ill other than the constant sneezing. I'll watch them a little longer to see if anything changes. Thanks for the help Peter and Tama.

Seems that dust in the shavings is a cause. I switched to sifted and it seemed to help. It was never that severe for me

Will give it a try smilin-buddha, Thanks!

Question.. you've had them for 3 weeks and tried 3 different beddings. How long did you try the beddings for each? If you had carefresh in there for a full week and they were still sneezing, then I would assume upper respiratory and just get new ones. Can't be any kind of aspen or pine problem from carefresh.

We had them on pine for two weeks than switched to Carefresh for a couple days than to aspen. They don't sneeze while they're sleeping but when they are up playing and eating.

Another question if I have to start over can I feed them to make snakes?

I have a few breeder female that seems to sneeze when they are nervous or anxious. Like when I am messing around in their enclosures or just walking around in the rat room for a while working. I don't hear the sneezing until they definitely notice I'm around. Doesn't sound like you have ill rats to me especially if they are eating drinking and growing.

Rats tend to let you know they are ill with liquidy poop. If there poop looks good I think you are ok.

We had them on pine for two weeks than switched to Carefresh for a couple days than to aspen. They don't sneeze while they're sleeping but when they are up playing and eating.

Another question if I have to start over can I feed them to make snakes?

Try switching back to the Carefresh for a full week and see if that clears it up. Do you see any runny noses (may look almost like a slight bloody nose)? If not, could just be irritation or something, but if it looks really red or bloody nosish, then yeah, I'd feed em off. Just my opinion.

Thank you James!

Another quick question I'm hearing a lot of breeders using a certain medicated hog feed can anyone tell me the name of the feed.

Try switching back to the Carefresh for a full week and see if that clears it up. Do you see any runny noses (may look almost like a slight bloody nose)? If not, could just be irritation or something, but if it looks really red or bloody nosish, then yeah, I'd feed em off. Just my opinion.

No porphyrin or red staining around the eyes or nose. And the stools look as good as poop can look LOL! What stinks is I'm spending more time worrying about these damn rats than my snakes LOL! Thanks again for all the help guys and gals it means a lot, Thanks! BLBC ROCKS! :rockon:

google up mycoplasma.

Got one link for you.
http://www.rmca.org/Articles/myco.htm

Thanks for all the help guys! Went ahead and fed them off yesterday. Went out today looking for replacements with no luck! My lovely Petco doesn't sell male rats, this is proven to be harder than originally planned but I really appreciated all the help guys and gals!