My rats since day one have always had porphyrin. I've treated them twice with Baytril (any time they were sneezing) and they've been fine about that with not sneezing but the porphyrin has stayed around. I read somewhere that it can also be caused by stress. I'm just very confused on what my rats would be stressed about? Any time I'm with them they're always very energetic, loving, and are always bruxing. For bedding, I use t-shirts and wash them with a no fragrance detergent. For food, I feed them Reggie Rat Food and any yogi treats, Kix, and Chex. I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong?

I'm not an expert, but I had this problem with my girl, Jess. She had never had it before, then all of a sudden she just started developing the red crust around both eyes and her nose. It really stood out against her white coat, too. I asked around and everyone kept saying it was normal, maybe she was stressed about something, etc. so I waited to see. Sure enough, months passed and then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. I still don't know what caused it, but she never seemed to suffer with it. Unless your rats seem distressed, I would say what people told me about Jess - it's normal, and don't worry too much, weird though it may be! :)

Thank you for your response! Yeah, they've never seemed to have any trouble with it besides sneezing but the doctor said that they'll probably have flare ups the rest of their lives. I was just wondering if maybe there was something I was doing that was causing the porphyrin. Right now they're starting to sneeze again so I'll probably have to give them another dose of Baytril. I have a feeling it's going to become my best friend with the flare ups they have lol The vet always says they're perfectly healthy though! He said it could just be allergies.

In my experience, some rats create more porphyrin than others and at least for my girls, porphyrin in itself isn't bad most of the time.

This is not the case for every rat or everyones experience, just my own girls, experience and vets opinion.