Re prev post weird twitching before xmas

Question
QUESTION: Unfortunately Soupy passed away as i was getting ready for work this morning. There had been no more blood in her urine but i think the delay in getting her the right medicine probably caused to much damage (he was on holiday, as was the next nearest exotic vet, and the next!!!) and her breathing just wasnt improving. Thank you for your time in answering the previous messages i sent and your pages helped me understand what was wrong with her. The good news is her litter mate seems to be doing well and her breathing seems good, no weight loss, or loss of appetite. Im just hoping losing her friend at such an early age wont depress her too much.
thanks again


With great sorrow for   ANSWER: I am very sorry to hear this.  You can always get your rat a cagemate. If you  would like to learn more about how to go about this and how to do proper introductions, just let me know.



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QUESTION: I am considering trying to find a rat that needs rescuing of a similar age as ive often seen ones up for adoption in local pet shops that people have decided they dont want. However im a bit concerned whatever soupy had clanger has and she is now going to be on anti biotics for the rest of her life. Am i going to be putting a new addition at risk? Also what age do rats stop breeding? In case i cant find a female friend for her, is it a good idea to put a male and female together?

ANSWER: Hi again

For starters, no, do NOT put the male and female together.  The only way to breed rats is to know what your breeding, the ancestry.  You can be putting two rats together that could create a litter of very unhealthy or aggressive rats.  Being that there are already more than enough pet rats in this world, many are homeless, the sole purpose to breed is to create a healthier rat with a good disposition.  You may end up with more rat pups than you can handle, or hefty medical bills that are a result of a complicated labor. Rats should not be bred more than twice and should not be bred much more than over a year old, ideally under a year.

If your rat has to be on antibiotics for the rest of her life, thats ok, its a good way to prevent outbreaks of mycoplasmosis and is actually the right way to do it once the rat has more than two respiratory infections in his or her life time.  


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QUESTION: Sorry i think ive been unclear as to what i was asking. I do not want to breed rats i want to know if there is an age you can put a male and female together where they will not breed. Also i want to know if i would be putting another rat at risk by putting them together? For example could the new rat catch what clanger has seeing as she became ill after soupy became ill?

Answer
Whoops my bad!  I misunderstood when you asked if its a good idea to put a male and female together, since the chance of them breeding is 100% or close to it, I just assumed you meant to make babies!!  LOL

To be honest, its never a good idea to put them together unless someone is sexually altered. Although females estrus cycle ceases around 14 to 24 months with the most common age around 18 months, its still impossible to know since they do not bleed during their heat cycle. Some females do show physical signs of heat, such as flutter and vibrating their ears, which to be honest, although this is a fact they do this, I have never been lucky enough to witness this adorable mating call!! Females go into heat every  5 days and it lasts around 12 hours give or take an hour or so, so its easy to see how fertile these rats are!  Males are sexually reproductive at 5 weeks of age and and this pertains to females too, whose reproductive age follows closely behind around the same age as males.

As for the chances of Soupy passing on any illness to your existing rat, this is pretty slim. What you should do (and are supposed to do anyhow to be honest) is to isolate any new additions to your rat family for a quarantine that lasts 3 weeks. This will protect your existing rat from getting anything the new rat may harbor since it is impossible in many cases to detect if a rat is incubating any illness until it manifests)  Proper procedure for quarantine can be read on my website, Sandyscrittercity.com and refer to the page on quarantine for info.
Usually when rats are sick, they are sick because their immune system is weak and although many believe rats pass things around, they really dont.  Soupy was sick and contagious long ago, when  her symptoms first started, and if your existing rat was going to get sick you would have seen visible signs now.  There are some illnesses that are dangerous and contagious to rats, usually striking the entire litter at once, and these are the sendai virus, most dangerous when the rats are very young, and the SDA virus, another contagious virus that although the virus itself is not dangerous, the side effects from the disease weakening the immune system and causing secondary infection can be quite nasty.  I think your existing girl is safe, but don't forget, stress from being alone can easily weaken the immune system for her and illness can set in so do keep her as busy as you can, spending more time with her when possible, and of course, looking into rescuing a loving little rat that is need of a happy home with you!