I currently have an older rat that doesn't have a companion. I play with her all the time but she has been moving less due to old age. I have a friend who just had a litter of rats. She wants to give them away and I want one. I was thinking of getting a female since a male can reproduce but I don't know how her and my current rat will react to each other. What do I do?
If she is your friend maybe you could ask to test it out and see if it goes well? I’ve never had female rats but I heard they are easier to get along with each other than males. It’s important to note that a younger rat will need another young rat to play with so you should probably get two friends for her so they can play with each other and not bug her too much but I’m sure she’d love the company. Also be sure that the rats aren’t too young to be taken from their mom and it can also be dangerous to put a young baby with an older rat as ive heard that if they are too young the other rat will mistake them for something else and could kill them. If you don’t want two maybe look into adopting an older rat and if you don’t mind getting two just make sure they are a good age to be taken from their mom and introduced to a new friend. Hope that helps a bit
I would definitely adopt 2 babies to go with your older one and I would also ask if you can "try" it out. You should be doing slow introductions with them. The new rat/rats will need their own cage until you are sure your older girl with accept them without any issues.
Get 2 baby girls, babies need another baby to play with and intros take time.
Make sure they are at least 8 weeks old, 10 weeks is safer, before you start physically doing intros
