[King420]

I just got a fancy blue rat from Petco and every time I pick it up or it gets excited it starts makeing a "chirping" sound and sneezeing alot. Is this normal? I have only had one rat before this one and she didnt do this, but my other rat was a female and this is a male. Could that make a difference? Please help, I dont want to have to take the lil guy back to the store for any treatment if I dont have to.

 

[hjkaga]

It sounds like their is something wrong. A rat doesn't normally sneeze and make that sound. It might have a respiratory infection or something.

 

[King420]

Ok well im going to return the rat to petco but i was wondering if the bedding in the cage could transmit the disiease to the new rat.

 

[Poppyseed]

Definately replace the bedding and thouroughly clean the cage. Clean everything she's been on and you might want to even wait a bit for the disease to clean out of the air before you get a new one.

 

[cupids_cuties]

i
my rat also sneezed alot when i first got her along w/ the occasional chirping and i waited to see how she turned out adn she was fine...well i guess its up to you...but being a baby, and being in an aquarium with many other rats and changing environments(all likely to make her sick)...it could be a minor respiratory infection

 

[twitch]

without actually being there to see for myself i can't tell for sure but the chirpping noise could be him bruxxing, its a rats way of purring. sometimes if they're sniffing at the same time it can sound a little werid. and the sneezing doesn't necessarily mean a sick rat if its in a new environment. rats see mostly with their sense of smell and earing as their eyesight is so poor you might as well say they're blind (close your eyes until you can only see out through your eyelashes then take away all color--that's pretty much what they can see. lighter eyed rats can see even less shadow). you know how a dog will sneeze out one smell to better getanother, well rats will do the same thing. if everything smells new then they'll sneeze out more smells to get others. this can go one for a few days actually, until the rat gets used to everything. now, having said that, not all rats will do this when brought to a new place all that much. it depends on the personality of the rat. that's not to say that he didn't bring something with him from the pet store though. but even that is pretty simple to treat with a bit of antibiotics. but if you have a health guarrantee then you can probably make the pet shop pay for the vet bills anyway, so long as the guarantee hasn't expired anyway. if its one of the types that its only good for exchange then i wouldn't bother with it. if this guy has an illness the rest are likely to have it too. but this is the gamble you make when you buy from a pet store. the rats there are not always properly cared for and the workers and owners aren't likely to have the time to handle and check each rat out and get vet care for the sick ones. they just have too many animals to do that with and most ig francise ones don't care wnough about that anyway when it comes to rats.

 

[tasha]

My rat sneezed/chirped a lot when she first came home with me but is fine now and still once in a while chirps. I think the sneezing part was nerves, because I was very nervous about a resp. infection but she stopped in the next day or two.

 

[HENRY]

I forget how offton do you have to let your guy out?

 

[Psykotik]

my guys are out 7-15 hrs a day... depending on whats going on

but recommended is 1 hr+ per day...

 

[HENRY]

OK do you have littlie place were you just leave him and he has his thing

 

[Psykotik]

mostly in my room, or in my hoodie hood

 

[King420]

Ok, i just got back to check on this topic and heres the update....i took the other rat back and they told me he was sick and gave this huge estimate on how much it would cost if i did it myself, so i let them do it. but they told me that they couldnt guarantee that i would get him back because i had to make a return and get my money back, so i just exchanged him for another blue rat. which turned out to be sick too, but this time i took it in to my own hands. i had some amoxicilin in my fridge and after a bit of research online found out that i could treat him with it. so i gave him sum 3x a day for a week and now hes a healthy rat. so i made a mistake returning the other rat because i could have treated it myself but this was one **** of a learning expirience. this rat was the one i wanted in the first place any way. i told the chik there i wanted the biggest one and she picked out the small one.......im no longer dealing with pet stores from now on. does any one know of any breeders in or near Atlanta Georgia?

 

[Psykotik]

i wont do pet stores anymore either... not even the one i WORK at >.<

 

[King420]

LOL! I hear that, all the animals are sick, and not well taken care of. No offense.

 

[Psykotik]

every time im thier, i take them out, and play with them... but me, only dosnt do too much

 

[catlike_thief]

Pet store are so bad sometimes. I got a pregnant guinea pig from one, And I've gotten a lot of false info from them as well.

My rat sneezes and chirps a lot too. I thought maybe he had allergies or he did it when he was excited. I've had him for a year, and I started listening to his breathing and it sounds very scratchy. I'm going to take him to the vet, because when I got him they had him on pine bedding and I think that may have messed up his lungs. I had them on Yesterday's News pretty much since I got them.