Moon's Graden

I have two female rats (Rizzo and Gonzo), both a year and a half old.
Because their life expectancy is only about two years, I decided to get two
more female rats. This way when one of the older rats dies, the other one
will not be left alone.

The new rats (Piglet and Tigger) are just over two months old. What I would
like advice on is when and how I should introduce them to Rizzo and Gonzo...

Gonzo is already obsessed with the new arrivals, and is constantly trying to
get into the bedroom where the baby rats are living. I have briefely
introduced her to them- Gonzo was in no way agressive, but scared the young
rats by trying to sniff them so much! Would it be best to wait a while, or
is now the best time for introductions?!

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Perran

When : as soon as the quarantine is over. Since you already introduced your
rats to the newcomer, extending the quarantine is pointless. So, you can
start the introduction right now.

How : since they're females, they should get along with little to no fuss.
Just to be on the safe side, put all of your girls on a surface they're all
unfamiliar with and keep an eye for trouble.

You can always start by putting both of your rat cages next to each other
for them to get used to the scents until you feel it's time to move the
newcomer to the larger cage with the others.

Then again, it reads like your older girls are free-range rats so, you
might want to wait until the newcomers are house-trained before setting
them loose.

This is what I just read in a book called "Training Your Pet Rat":

They said that, after the quarantine period, it's a good idea to put
both cages next to each other so the rats can get used to the scents
of the other rats (as suggested in the previous response.) After a few
days of that, the book says to swap cages for a moment (put the new
rats in the older rat's cage, and the current rat(s) in the newcomers'
cage) so they can smell at will. Do that a few times. Then, they say
it's time for them to meet in a neutral place (new rats first, to give
them an advantage,) such as the tub, and that they should be watched
for any serious fights. They also say it's normal if they "fight" a
little (you know, a rat under another and some squeaking) because they
are trying to decide who's going to be the alpha rat and so on.

--

Carole
_____________________________ ____ ___ __ __  _   _
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Thankyou very much for your advice! What I am worried about is that I
haven't put the new rats into quarantine from the older rats. Have I put
them at a risk of getting ill? If so what should I do now? Given that only
one of the female rats has (very briefely) met the newbies, should I still
keep them separate for a while?

Most of the serious/common rat diseases are INSANELY CONTAGIOUS. So,
whatever the new rats have (if they did have anything) was mostly passed to
your older rat when she came in contact with them and then to your other
older rat when you returned her.

Also, you have to super-clean yourself if you don't want to carry new
diseases from one cage to the other during the quarantine period. If you
did not do this, you probably shuttled the diseases from one cage to the
other yourself. (again, that's if there was any new ones)

So, it's quite likely that there is no much use for a quarantine anymore.
Hopefully, the new rats weren't carrying new diseases and you won't have to
go through a Liloo-like story yourself.

I'm being incredibly careful with the older rats, and keeping a constant eye
on them...
I'll also pop along to the vets tomorrow to see if there's any immunisation
I should use in this case.

Hopefully everything will be OK, but if it insn't you'r advice could be life
saving, so a big thanks!

Perran

One one SDA/Sendai page I read, they said that quarantined rats should not
even be kept in the same building when either of those virus are suspected.

Then again, what I read was written by a breeder who lost over 30 rats
(about half his stock) in less than a week when one of the virus visited
his site. Another cost (for breeders) is that by the time the epidemic has
cleared up, most of the surviving females are too old to (safely) be bred
again, which means some lines on which breeders tried to perfect over the
years are lost. "It's as if that line's whole ancestry died a second time."

(this is one case where it's definitely a whole lot better to be safe than
sorry)

Sendai and SDA won't kill a rat by themselves. When they're alone, most
rats will be done with them in two months. When other (secondary)
infections are added (often mycoplasma pulmonis), every second count -
those are the cases where seemingly healthy rodents die overnight.

Since there is no cure for either SDA or Sendai, there are four things the
common mortal can do :
1- ***-screening to check for SDA/Sendai
2- quarantine the new rats for at least one month (and add another two
months if any signs of SDA/Sendai come up)
3- hope SDA/Sendai aren't there  <-- You are here.
4- be ready for a break-out (which mostly means Baytril/Doxytocin to clear
out secondary infections and give the rat's immune system a chance to clear
SDA/Sendai on its own)

At this point, you're at #3 : crossing your fingers and hope that your
newbies are clear. (which they hopefully are)

If none of the rats show signs of either (look for dull eyes, inflamation
on the sides or under the neck or one eye protruding more than the other)
over the first month, you're probably clear.

Either way, it's too late to start quarantine so, you might as well go on
with the introduction.