Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / February 2004

I asked about this on the group absolutely a-g-e-s ago and am only just able to
get some more rats now.  The consensus was that it was relatively simple, and
even easier when introducing girls.  Unsurprisingly males are the ones that are
the most difficult to introduce and if you follow the usual steps outlined on
the various websites out there it should be no problem with your girls.

Do a google for 'introducing rats' and they'll be squillions of sites to look at
and learn from.

Let us now how it goes!

Mark.

All I can say is it is way way easier to introduce babies to older Rats...:)
I have done it with all my boys so far.  Rodney is of course the exception
as he is 1yr old and set in his ways..:((

Hi Kelly,
I would recommend getting two babies, this way they will be able to ward off
any offensive acts from the old girl. But usually, girls will accept new
cagemates easier. I would recommend keeping the babies in a separate cage
until you do intros. Intros should be done on a neutral place... do as many
as they need, Lucy may take to them immediately and so you can go the next
step of thoroughly cleaning Lucy's cage and changing it around a little, put
the babies in while Lucy is having some out time. Then add Lucy after the
babies had the chance to put their scent in there.
By the way, if the babies eyes are just opening, this means they are 17 days
old. They will eat solids at 3 weeks but it is not recommended to remove
them from their mother before age of 4 weeks.
Good luck!

When you do decide to get a playmate for Lucy, get 2 babies...I've never had
trouble introducing babies to an adult.  Do it slow like you would for any
other meeting.  Babies are much easier.  The reason why I say get 2
is.....Lucy will die much sooner then the baby....God forbid, when that
happens, the baby will still have a mate and won't have to be
alone...........
Sue

As the others have said, it's easier introducing females and especially
babies, so I don't think you'll have any problems.  Having said that I've
introduced males and never had the slightest problems.  I even introduced
two adult males with no problems.  What I do is introduce on neutral
territory and make sure when I put the rats back in the cage I watch them
like a hawk, just in case there are any problems.  For the first few nights
I take the cage with me to the bedroom and put it next to me on the bedside
table, so that I am right there if needed.  I'm a light sleeper and wake up
at the slightest squeek!

As I said above, I've never had any problems introducing, none of my ratties
have ever fought - guess I've been lucky.  What I did find was that for the
first few days some of my rats snubbed the newcomer - wherever the new rat
went the other would avoid.  This only lasted a few days though, and by the
end of the first week they have always been the best of friends, snuggling
together to sleep.

Tracey

Now here's a funny story about rats moving in together.. when I had my
previous rats, I had a friend who also had two female rats. When he
went on holiday I was going to rat-sit, so we just put them all
together in one cage. What did we know that there was such a thing as
an "introduction"... scrubbing down cages, neutral territory etc.. we
just never thought about it.. within 5 minutes they were all 4
snuggled up together in the flowerpot.
For the next two years, whenever one uf us went away, we put them
together. In a cage that was way too small for the 4 of them I have to
admit.. but there never was any problem. Guess we were just lucky!

Klary