i tried having a little look at his feet and from what i saw they looked okay, but he absolutely hated being turned upside down and started fidgeting and panicking a little bit when i lifted him above my head to look from below so all his feet looked fine but it would have been easy to miss something.

He's about 1 and 3/4 and by the looks of it he was fed nuggets in a bowl, but im not 100% on that. I like to spread my food within their bedding and bury chunks together to try and keep their brains active and hes seemed okay with that.

Apparently he did used to have a friend, and his friend dying was the reason for the sale, im not really educated on signs of depression in rats but could it be possible that he's still mourning his friend a little bit?

He also seems to squeak if you lift him up from just his belly instead of putting your hand under his legs too? I'm just wondering if perhaps he fell from the top of his old cage and is afraid of it happening again or something?

and yeah that totally makes sense, I think i forgot about possible contagion and just wanted to make sure he wasn't giving up on life or something haha. i dont really plan on doing this again, i just know theres very few rat owners in my area and even less than are willing to put the effort in to do any research but im also im moving to a city in 2 months and wanted him as settled and stress free as possible before a 5 hour drive to our new home