Hello everyone,

We’ve been talking about introducing another rat to our two girls, and our friend who works at a pet store (specializing in fish and reptiles) happened to show us his favourite 2-month-old feeder girl from one of the bins—he’d already taken her out of the feeder bins to be a mother later in life, as he does with most of his favourites—and we fell in love. Luckily he was able to lend us a small cage for quarantining, and since we already have two rats (and mice, so we are feeding her the Oxbow mouse and young rat food), we didn’t really have to buy many extras to get her set up for quarantining in the bathroom. We’ve named her Jennifer.

Unsurprisingly she’s presenting some health concerns, which we were expecting. So far we’ve noticed soft stools, sneezing, and occasionally some clicky breathing. She is very bright-eyed, active, and eating/drinking well (she’s eaten at least 3 full pellets in the past 12 hours).

I know anecdotally (through online forums and the friend who gave her to us, as he has taken home old retired breeder males with similar symptoms) that sometimes these issues are related to the bad air circulation in the bins and proximity to other rats, so we’re planning on waiting a week to see if she improves. She’s already sneezing far less, and her breathing is only audible when she gets overly excited/stressed—like when we pick her up. If she seems like she is declining in health at all we will visit the vet ASAP.

Currently we have Jen in the bathroom away from our current rats who are in our bedroom, and we wash and sanitize before we touch them after being in the room with her. Mostly we’re wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences, and what happened in your case! We’re prepared for and okay with a vet visit, but any estimation on a cost (we’re in Ontario, Canada—but anywhere would help) would also be appreciated!

Thanks everyone :)

Update: Her breathing seems a lot worse now, and she now has discharge from her nose, and we’ve called every open exotic vet in our city and no one can see us today (the one we were able to talk to doesn’t have their exotic vet back until Thursday). Does anyone have any tips to help limit her distress until we can get her to the vet tomorrow?