New Home Sneezes
- Moomoo Rattery
- Jan 14, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 27
Rats have sensitive respiratory systems. Stress lowers their immune system and moving to a new home can be the most stressful thing they experience with new smells, sounds, rats, and humans. As respiratory disease is the leading cause of illness and death for pet rats, it can be very scary to see your rat sneezing when you bring them home. This is why it’s important to quarantine new rats for a minimum of 2 weeks to monitor for illness, but also essential to learn the signs of respiratory disease and when it's time to call the vet.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. I have linked our favorite products in this blog to help you shop! If you're not ready to purchase any items, save this blog as the links in it are my affiliate links.
Signs It’s a Respiratory Disease
• Wet breathing sound, audible chest noises when put up to your ear
• Coughing noises
• Excessive porphyrin (red discharge on eyes/nose or on fur from grooming). A tiny bit upon waking up is normal but persistence over a few days is a sign of illness
• Lethargy (not eating or drinking as usual)
• Sneezes continue after 2 weeks
When to Call Vet
If any of the above occur, it’s a good idea to call a local exotics veterinarian.
What Can I do to Prevent it?
Many rats are born with Mycoplasma pulmonis, a bacteria which exacerbates respiratory disease when their immune systems are down. Their environment can also cause irritation to their respiratory systems, triggering Mycoplasma flare-ups.
Ammonia, dust, and stress are 3 things you want to prevent in their new home every day, but especially during their 2 week quarantine.
Ammonia:
Use only proper bedding. This is kiln-dried aspen, Kiln-dried pine, or hemp. Bio-active is safe as long as it’s properly maintained, though this is very hard to do for rats. Paper brands such as Carefresh, bare shelves, cedar, and fleece do not control ammonia at all and the smell of their own pee will burn their noses and cause respiratory infections. Cedar is toxic. Try to use the bedding that the breeder is using to minimize irritation from the change, but only if they use those 3 proper types.
Air purifiers help with ammonia as well, the ones that connect to wifi and are smart meaning they turn on and off as needed are the most energy efficient, see the link to our favorite one below.
Products
Dust: Only use bedding that says 99% dust free. Ideally you want 100% dust free, you can throw the bedding into a mesh laundry hamper and shake it outside before introducing to your rats to remove that 1% of dust. I prefer having an air purifier on at all times as it draws most of the dust out of the cages.
Products
Stress:
Quarantine reduces stress for the new rats, which helps many systems within your rats properly develop and stay healthy.
“Stress… has widespread effects on physiological systems in laboratory animals including changes in the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, central nervous and reproductive systems” (Obernier & Baldwin, 2006).
Quarantine helps determine if there are signs of illness and reduce the risk of spreading it to your human family and other rats. This adjustment period also helps them get used to your home before the possible stress of introductions between your new rats and older rats begin.
Handling can cause a lot of stress to rats trying to adjust to your new home, we recommend using our Bonding Pouch so they can become used to your sound, scent, and warmth without the stress of handling. Having high value treats is also helpful to associate you with positive feelings and emotions.
Products
Other Causes:
Fragrances
Scented cleaning supplies
Smoke
Allergy to bedding (only Hemp is hypoallergenic)
Infection acquired before adoption
Infection acquired during transport
Overall
New home sneezes are very normal, it’s important to know when it’s likely a respiratory disease and how to ensure a proper adjustment period and quarantine.
It’s also a good idea to stay in contact with the breeder or source that you get your rats from, as they will want to know if their rats Mycoplasma or any other disease, which every source of rats should be working towards eradicating.
If suspecting a respiratory infection, seek veterinary care. Do not try to treat respiratory infections at home, improper use of antibiotics can do more harm than good. Some respiratory infections are viral or fungal, and antibiotics will just kill the good bacteria their bodies need. The sooner you seek treatment, the less likely an upper respiratory infection will become a lower respiratory infection. Prompt treatment can also prevent recurring infections from happening, as respiratory infections can easily become chronic.
Source
Obernier, J. A., & Baldwin, R. L. (2006). Establishing an appropriate period of acclimatization following transportation of laboratory animals. ILAR Journal, 47(4), 364–369. https://doi.org/10.1093/ilar.47.4.364
Comments