Lethargy or just getting older?

[Talulla]

Hi,
I have two pet rats Tamira and Nifti. Tamira is usually the more active one, jumping all over the palce and running like a crazy girl. Nifti is usually the more laid back one, running for a bit looking for food or nesting material and then laing down somewhere and just observing all.
Lately I have noticed that Tamira has startet to be less active than her sister: she is no longer always the first out when I open the cage, but she always is the first to go back to their sputnik after about 45 minutes of free roam (sometimes 30 min, sometimes up to an hour). She eats fine and (minus a choking accident that happend yesterday) she seams pretty normal, still jumping and running, just doing it for less time.
They both are now 1 year and two monts and I don't know if I should interpret this as a sing of getting older (they both seem more cuddly than usual) or if I should take her to the vet sooner than their usual checkup.
Thenks for any feedback!

 

[Dena]

Usually girls will stay pretty active until they are extremely old. 14 months isn't old at all. I had a girl who lived to 3.5 years old, and she was super active until she hit around the 3 year mark. Have you listened to her breathing (rat phone), or checked for lumps, cuts, sores, etc? Did she start acting like this AFTER the choking incident?

 

[Talulla]

She hed been less active since before the incident (that I now think was caused by the new bedding I put in). She seams clear of any lumps, cuts or othes stuff, and from what I can listen her lungs seam clear too. The one thing that seams to have changed since she has become less active is that her sister, that is usually the more submissive one, has now become more dominant, challenging Tamira for her position(?)
I think I'm going to call my vet for an appointment either way. She seams fine now but I woulden't want to ignore a woring sing and than have her deal with something worse.
Anyway, last evening I timed them and Tamira was pretty active from 6pm till 7pm, than took a nap and from 8pm till 9ish was up and bouncy.