Moon's Graden

Thanks for the kind messages from those who replied to my post about
Xander passing away (Rat passed away? Help needed). I just thought I'd
let you know how Giles, Xander's brother is doing. We took him to the
vets, who checked him out and it seems he's doing very well with very
clear lungs at the moment. We also went to the pet shop yesterday and
ended up getting not two (as we intended) baby boy ratties, but three!
Well, we couldn't leave one by himself :)  So Giles now has three new
friends, Frasier, Niles, and Eddie. He's only met them outside cages
at the moment, as we're introducing them gradually, but they seem to
be getting on very well, and Giles seems to have perked up quite a lot
- he didn't want to go back in his cage at all earlier! I've taken
some pictures of the new fellows btw, which I might put those up at
some point if anyone's interested.

Incidentally, if anyone has any relevant experience or tips on
introducing young rats to older ones, I'd love to hear them!

On Thu, 27 Sep 2001 16:02:40 GMT, Quarlanthalasa

On a related note, I've been considering (rather idly, as I keep
moving around and really don't need any extra stuff) getting my girls
a bigger cage (right now they're both in a ten-gallon aquarium, which
they seem perfectly satisfied with because they get to come out pretty
much whenever they want, but I'd like to get them a bigger one).  Of
course, then I'd have this completely empty cage here that I'd have to
do something with, and it's a perfectly good size for one rat.  I've
never had a male, and that's all the pet stores around here sell, so I
was sort of wondering if it was possible to have rats that live in
separate cages play together outside so they don't get lonely.  Would
that work, or is it just not enough time together to really be
comfortable?

-- Theresa
tiger_spot(at)mail.utexas.edu

If you consider that rats need only a couple of seconds to mate, letting
them play together for any amount of time isn't a good idea until the
male/s is/are fixed.

Add to that the fact that rats usually require the most attention when

dead-end. (unless all your females are fit for pregnancy and you don't mind
having somewhere around 50 babies on your hands in a few weeks.

I guess you'll have to find something else to do with your spare.