RescueRatMom
New Member
I'm mom to seven girls precious girls right now. They have a safe room to run in and spend time with me outside their cage every day. I served all their food in forage toys (homemade or for parrots) for enrichment.
Four of my girls live all together in a double Critter Nation. One is 2yrs 3mos and the other three (sisters) are 1yr 7mos.
I wanted to add to the family, so I recently adopted three more rats. One is one year old and she has a Rat Manor, and the other two are a mom and baby pair. Mom is 1yr 5mos and Baby is 2mos. They have a single Critter Nation and Baby loves all her room to run.
The one-year-old solo girl was surrendered to the shelter because she was fighting with her cagemate and the shelter recommended keeping her alone, but in talking to them I learned they didn't know much about her previous situation and they said it would be all right for me to try introducing her to my family if we took it slow.
I'm not sure what order to go about introducing them in. Should I introduce my solo girl to my older girls first so she doesn't have to be lonely long (assuming it works out), or should I introduce Mom and Baby to them first? Or is it better to do it all at once? It's my instinct to introduce my solo girl to the older girls first so I can see how she does with rats who can hold their own before she meets Baby.
If my solo girl is too aggressive to be housed with my other girls, would there be any reason to think she might do well with a neutered male cagemate? I have never had male rats and don't know much about them. I give her as much human time as possible but obviously it would be infinitely better to have a friend for her.
I hope it's all right to ask questions in this section! I looked around and it seemed like it was done but I can move my question to Behavior if that is better.
Four of my girls live all together in a double Critter Nation. One is 2yrs 3mos and the other three (sisters) are 1yr 7mos.
I wanted to add to the family, so I recently adopted three more rats. One is one year old and she has a Rat Manor, and the other two are a mom and baby pair. Mom is 1yr 5mos and Baby is 2mos. They have a single Critter Nation and Baby loves all her room to run.
The one-year-old solo girl was surrendered to the shelter because she was fighting with her cagemate and the shelter recommended keeping her alone, but in talking to them I learned they didn't know much about her previous situation and they said it would be all right for me to try introducing her to my family if we took it slow.
I'm not sure what order to go about introducing them in. Should I introduce my solo girl to my older girls first so she doesn't have to be lonely long (assuming it works out), or should I introduce Mom and Baby to them first? Or is it better to do it all at once? It's my instinct to introduce my solo girl to the older girls first so I can see how she does with rats who can hold their own before she meets Baby.
If my solo girl is too aggressive to be housed with my other girls, would there be any reason to think she might do well with a neutered male cagemate? I have never had male rats and don't know much about them. I give her as much human time as possible but obviously it would be infinitely better to have a friend for her.
I hope it's all right to ask questions in this section! I looked around and it seemed like it was done but I can move my question to Behavior if that is better.