When to intro babies to adults?

[BlueSkyy]

What age do you usually wait for to intro a baby rat to a group of adults?

My group consists of (ages are rough guesses)
~3 year old, neutered, HED
~1.5 year old, un-neutered, alpha rat
~1.5 year old, un-neutered
~10 month old, neutered
~10 month old, un-neutered, omega rat

None of them have ever met a baby rat before, except for the 3 year old (he met the 1.5 years when they were babies, but he's so old and mellow I'm not worried about him)

I have a ~4 week old baby rat (yes just one, although I could "rescue" a baby feeder rat so he could have a buddy if necessary...) and I would like opinions on when to intro him to my main group. He was a rescue from a weird situation so there's just him.

He's VERY healthy so far *knock on wood* and is getting more and more confident with himself and people. Right now he's living on his own in the travel cage as I try to bulk him up as fast as possible.

I've heard anywhere between 6-10 weeks. Personally I've put very young (4-5 week) babies with adult males before and had no issues, but I don't want to risk it with this little guy.

 

[BlueSkyy]

Ugh, maybe he's 5 weeks? He's got obvious balls but still has "baby fuzz." >.< I am horrible and telling ages.

 

[BlueSkyy]

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[Sheldon]

Well I don't know how to answer you because I have no experience with it, but he's so cute!!!

 

[hopefloats]

You have to wait till the babies are at least 8 to 10 weeks old. They cannot defend themselves any sooner and at a young age, one bite can kill them.

 

[jorats]

I would definitely wait until 8 to 10 weeks old because you have un neutered males. But in the meantime, ya, I would go and get him a feeder buddy to keep him company. I hate seeing babies by themselves.

 

[BlueSkyy]

Any guesses as to how old he looks? He hand wrestles with me now.

 

[jorats]

He looks about 6 weeks to me.

 

[BlueSkyy]

Well, it's done. I just got back from "rescuing" a baby feeder rat - a little rex(?) PEW. He was born at the store and has been shuffled from nursing mom to nursing mom as they pulled pinkies for feeders so he is super duper FAT from basically having nursing mommies all to himself. Approx 5-6 weeks old. The owners didn't want to sell him as a feeder because they basically watched him grow and got attached... He and the other one are bouncing around like crazy things playing with each other since they've both been "only children" for a while. So cute to see them play. This guy seems pretty healthy. I rat-phoned him for a good 2 minutes and held him for about 10 and not so much as a sniffle *knock on wood*

 

[BlueSkyy]

Snuggling

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[jorats]

Super cute! Now they will both grow up healthy and happy with each other as life long companions. Intros will also be less stressful now because they are two.