Himalayan Rex Rat

Question
Hi

I am a pet owner of 6 rescue cats. I saw the rex rat which was up for adoption a fews weeks ago. I had him and bought him a 4 rat cage - he has his own room so that when i am out he can be ventilated and not bothered by the cats.  I am beginning to feel that he may be lonely as he does not come out of his cage much due to my job. I am told he is about 8 months old and very loving. I have been told by a pet store that i should be able to introduce another same sex rat, on this basis, i have purchased a ferplast furet tower for 8 rats (so i now have two) the intention was to let them live side by side (as neighbours) and then do a very slow introduction. I rang pet rescue to see if they had any rats for adoption, but i was given the impression that an introduction of this nature is never likely to succeed.

My early thoughts were - my rex rat would still then not be lonely with the presence of another rat albiet he may only hiss and puff - as an expert what is your opinion?

Caitlin

Answer
Ahhhhhhhhh ha!  QUESTON POOL!

Caitlin, this was not sent directly to me. I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I will still give you advice if you want it, and apologize for this error that I did not see.

I would get another same sex rat, be sure he is a bit younger. The older rat will want to feel alpha and the younger rat may or may not allow for it, but if you introduce them slowly as you plan, it should work out fine, as long as there is no aggression with either rat. You can always consider neutering one or both (I threaten my boys that all the time! LOL) but kepe in mind that puberty in males is right around 8 months of age so its best only one male is going through it rather than having both, which is why I suggest a rat a bit younger, say, 5 months of age or so.

Perhaps you can find a neutered male at a rescue after all, or even a spayed female,but I am not sure how easy that would be to find either sex altered since these surgeries are not cheap, esp the spay.

As long as they have time to get to know each other, even through the bars. I lost three out of four of my mischief two years ago, leaving my one eyed boy, Santana, alone. He was over a year old and he had attitude.  The older boys that lived across the room were already 3 years old and very grumpy!  I used to get worried that they would fight but they did interact through the bars, mainly slapping each other and Santana would do what I call the "Sideways strut" where he would walk sideways and rub himself against the cage.  He would end the visit by leaving a few rat raisins in a pile by the cage and this I promise you, occurred every single day.  The old boys seemed to enjoy seeing Santana come over to their cage. I tried to let them meet nose to nose but Santana was too rough with my old men.  One of the old boys died at 3 and a half leaving Bo alone. He stopped hissing through the bars and Santana and they seemed content to interact through the bars. I do feel that simply this type of interaction kept both boys from really being lonely and to prove that, when Bo died at the ripe old age of 4 years and 3 weeks of age, my sweet one eyed boy lived only another 3 weeks before he went into congestive heart failure himself.  I found myself without rats for the first time in many years and was so empty, I myself picked up the Swine flu (this was in June) and I swear it was due to my own stress from being depressed losing my rats so close together.
I have three crazy baby boys now,bringing them home at just 4 weeks old and now they are 14 weeks and still crazy.  LOL
Just thought I would share that....so even if for some reason they could not share a cage, I do really feel that being side by side in the same room, smelling each other and even swatting through the cage bars would be enough to keep each other happy at least.  Some rats adjust fine alone, others not so good.

I hope this helped answer some of your questions and again please believe I would never have just set you aside unless there was some mistake or error of sorts. Sometimes I go to answer a question and send a thank you note instead, but usually I write right off and explain what happened and tell them to send the question again.  I can be a bit of an air head at times, trust me, I dont mean to be rude in any way. I have been here nearly 2 years and try to please every single person that writes me......I have found its not the easiest task though as some people just dont like what I have to say. :(