Sneezy Rats and Store-Suggested Medicine?

[Tanaya]

How long since you brought them home?
Do you have any strong scents in the room, like candles / sprays, etc?
Is it allergy season? Do you have carpet? How often do you clean the cage? (and what do you clean with? white vinegar is good for killing smells, but if I use more than a teaspoon, it makes one of my girls sneeze like crazy).
There are actually quite a lot of things that can cause ~just~ sneezing.
How often would you say they sneeze, multiple times an hour, every hour?
Personally, I think there is a lot of confusing information on ~just~ sneezing out there. When I first researched rats, there were many sites that claimed you should -never- hear a healthy rat sneeze. And that's simply untrue.

Its been 2 weeks. I clean them once a week and at first I had them with Aspen but then I switched to fleece. We don't have any strong scents in our home, and I don't think it's allergy season. I just use water and scrub really well, since it was just the first week. For their fabrics I'm going to be tossing them in the wash with just out standard detergent.

 

[Velo]

If I was you, I'd just keep an eye on them for now. Two weeks is not very long at all and can definitely fall into the range of "new home sneezes". Especially since you aren't seeing any other symptoms. Simple changes (like going from Aspen to fleece) can also cause some stress and sneezing.
Rats breathe exclusively through their noses (unless very ill) so it's not surprising that they are prone to sneezing.
I'd hold off on the amoxi (which you don't have yet, but still) unless symptoms appear and they get worse. It really won't help things to give antibiotics unless they actually have infections.

You could try some Benadryl, the stuff does help quite a bit. It's not advised to use for the long term, but could help them settle. You have to get the Children's liquid, it's dye free and alcohol free. I can help you dose it if you decide to try it.
You may also want to try a HEPA air purifier in the future (I understand it's not in your budget now, but they are a good investment).
Is the air dry? A humidifier can help exponentially if that's the case. If you don't have one, you can also leave bowl(s) of water in the room to up the humidity.
You can also try bringing them in the bathroom and running a hot steamy shower for 5-10 minutes and see if that helps.

I'd recommend dish soap for cage cleaning by the way. It's very gentle and effective.

I don't see any reason to be concerned. If you see any additional symptoms, then you may consider this being an infection.

 

[Joanne]

And when you wash the fleece, use unscented soap and no fabric softener.

 

[Tanaya]

Good call on the dish soap and unscented laundry detergent! Will definitely do that. I gave them a bunch of fabric and neither of them seem too interested in make a nest, they mostly just like to dig under the layers of fleece. I'm constantly flattening it out!