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Mialee

New Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2019
Messages
2
Location
England
Hi,

I have just bought 3 babies from a breeder in my area to go with my 3 rescue adults. They are 6 weeks old and 2 of them are quite confident but the other little girl is quite timid and has spent most of the time hiding in the corner. She’s the smallest of the group and the breeder said she was the smallest baby in the whole litter. (She’s about half the size of the other 2).

At what age can introductions begin with my adults? Or at what size would the babies be okay to be introduced? I’m just worried about the little one as she’s absolutely tiny I’m worried my other girls will attack her as I’ve heard horror stories of babies being ‘too small’ for intros. Although admittedly this is more common with bucks than does.

I have put their cages side by side with a big enough gap that no one can get bitten. The babies seem interested in the adults but the adults have no reaction (they don’t seem bothered and there’s no signs of aggression yet). I was thinking I would swap their cages over tonight so the adults can smell the babies and vice versa. I would then weigh the babies and aim for them to weigh 175g before introing using the carrier method.

Do I need to wait until the babies are bigger to intro? I need advice!!
(Pictures of the new babies below)
 

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They need to be at least 8 weeks old, but 10 weeks is safer.
Cute babies :)

Please see https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/introducing-new-rats.34842/#post-491257 and joinrats.com

btw the Reference Thread has a lot of good info https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

btw, if you have access to a good vet with the knowledge and experience to safely spay rats, it is important to get them spayed for health reasons https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/why-spay-or-neuter-rats.35402/
 
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