[Brain]

I think there may be something wrong with my new ratties.
I bought two females from a petshop I have known for some time and have heard great things from, animal wise, but something seems off about two girls I have gotten.

Well, for one I believe all the girls were from the same litter but they all were in different sizes. One seemed old enough to be maybe half a year, and one that was extremely small, which I adopted. She seemed fine, easy to pick up but VERY energetic, she will be nice and walk back in her cage, wait a second then fly back out to the entrance and she kept doing that like she didn't know what she was doing and have randomly jumped and springs all about her cage. This could be normal but Ive never had such an energetic rat before specially for her size.

The second female I got is bit bigger then the little one, she was a lot calmer when I got her, didn't really want to do anything with me, but she seemed fine when I held her, and she just seems so shy. I have held her a couple times, scratched her ear, gave her a little apple. But suddenly something doesn't seem right with her. She has pushed all the bedding from a corner in her cage and just lays there. She lays on her side, sometime with her but facing up, never seen a rat do that before, but she doesn't look asleep, her eyes are open and her mouth looks like she is eating or chattering but no noise and no food. It just looks to be chattering but no noise at all.

The little one comes to play and clean her but she doesn't react at all. I haven't seen her eat or drink since we got her, which was yesterday. I could be just guessing, she could be still nervous from coming home with me but her sister, if she really is her sister, just bounces everywhere and try's to play with me and her, and I don't know, something seems very weird about these rats.

Oh and when I put my hand in the cage they make this sneeze, squeek bark like noise, but they don't seem to be threatened by me and then out of the cage they make a sneeze squeek noise, and then randomly sneeze? They dont look sick, or the little one who sneezes more is full of energy. Hmm?

Why do my ratties just feel different to me?

 

[renay]

ah the wonderful pet store rat...
Have you ever heard of the saying "you get what you pay for"? Pet stores sell rats very cheap because in essence they are used as feeders for reptiles. Each time a pet store rat is bought as a pet, the owner is gambling, I've learned this the hard way... The reason they're so cheap is because they're poorly bred and poorly cared for (there are plenty of other reasons as well, but i'm generalizing as it is a petstore we're talking about) thus leading to illness, disease, and unsocialized rats... also, im assuming that the sneezes are being caused by mycoplasma pulmonis, an upper respiratory disease causing pathogen. Its pretty much fair to assume that most rats do have it, and it is treatable through medication, some rats respond, and some rats need life long treatments...
Onto the case of your lazy rat, She may be just that, lazy. But she is also showing signs of upper respiratory infections, you should probably have her vet checked... I wouldn't worry about the little ball of energy either, if shes as small as you've stated shes probably still very young. Anyway, I wish you and your new friends the best of luck...

 

[Brain]

Ive gotten rats before from pet shops and nothing like this has happened before. But you are right about the gambling but they have different sections, one for feeders and one for the pets they handle but then again it could all be a lie just to make it seem like they are better cared for. The lazy one, I notice also has weird ears. One grows forward and the other grows to the side, but the one facing forward looked smaller and malformed? I guess another thing for poorly bred?

PS: The lazy one, I haven't named em yet, likes to grab for my fingers, I have yet to let her have them in fear she will bite me? Is this is sign she is thinking of munching?

 

[Lesath]

When my rats were really young they would grab my fingers and pull my hands into the cages to play. It's very fun to play with them, mine like to wrestle around with my hand in the cage, I can (gently) push them over onto their backs and tickle their bellies and they will chew all over my fingers and get up and hop all around like crazy animals. They love to play with your hands like they would play with each other. Stick your hand in there and give it a try, I bet they want to play. :lol:

The ears sound like one is a dumbo. Two rats in my signature are dumbos, the little one in the middle has regular ears.

 

[Chthonicfox]

Just commenting, but I have a rat from a pet store. Although I researched for breeders and rescues I was unable to find one until recently when I heard about a rat rescue nearby. I imagine there are others in similar situations and it's not fair to judge someone because of the origins of their companions. I do not grudge purchasing mine for a pet store, his temperment and health has been excellent, but having said that, now that I've found another local option, I will be getting my next rats from the rescue.

 

[Lesath]

All of my ratties have been from pet stores so far, but I've had a lot of health issues with them as well. From now on it's breeders/rescues for me.

 

[Stephanie]

all but two of my boys are from pet stores. My girls were rescues. Right now I only have one sick rat and he is from a breeder he has sever head tilt cuase by something unknown though it is thought to be a brain tumor. All of my other boys are in perfect health and pretty much always have been. Jackson is two years old and still acting like a kitten LOL he was from a feeder bin in a local pet shop. honeslty I think that even though there are people out there that have had horendous encounters with pet sotre rats all of my experiences have been good so far.

 

[sk1tt135]

Most of mine have been from pet stores and I've have bad luck with the breeder I got my rats from before. I got 4 rats from her, 2 each time and all of them passed away before they were a year old. This just shows you never can tell with some things. I guess I just had bad luck with that breeder but a breeder rat could have just as many health problems and such as a pet store rat. Like I said, I've have good luck with pet store rats and extremely bad luck with breeder rats. =x