Menopause in rats

Question
Hi folks,
I recently adopted a male rat and was wondering about getting him a friend. I feel bad that he is alone in his cage at night. I play with him a lot, but I know it's not the same as having a friend of his own kind. I would think that two males might be an issue, he's a friendly and gentle rat to us, but he also is the king of his own domain... and this is an issue...

I've owned female rats before and remember introducing them to each other after the first one was almost a year. All they did was have a yelling match and fairly weak but noisy scrap and then they became inseparable.

Anyways, what my plan is, is to find an old female rat that has gone through menopause. I figure Toopy ( our rat) will be ok with a lady in the cage. I'm not interested in breeding them, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to put them in that situation. Therefore, it is crucial I know she is sterile....

My question is... how do you tell if she has gone through menopause if you don't know her age exactly.

Thanks for your time
-Anne

Answer
Hi Anne


You cant really tell if the rat has gone through menopause unless you have the Vet run some blood work to check the hormone levels.
Oh and THANK YOU for not wanting to breed.  I have pulled my hair out left and right on this site before with some many people that breed, having no clue what they are doing, breeding older rats that have never had litters and not having money to pay for emergency treatment should the rat have problems with labor etc... its really frustrating!


Anyhow, it would be super risky to put them together otherwise. Rats go through menopause anywhere from 18 months to 24 months old, sometimes older.  The common age is 18 months since many mammary tumors are seen after this age. Mammary tumors often develop after menopause because estrogen levels skyrocket, which in turn fuels the development of mammary tumors in the mammary glands.  
I have also heard of some rats that are over 2 come in for an emergency c-section because of an accidental pregnancy.

I would neuter your boy instead, and buy two females after that for him to be with. The neutered male should be kept from the females for at least 3 weeks so this would be perfect for quarantine purposes since new rats should be in quarantine for 3 weeks prior to meeting their new cagemate.  I would of course only allow a skilled vet neuter my rat.
Neutering is not a walk in the park like it is for cats and dogs but it still not super invasive and really makes your male nice and soft and they even stop with their urine markings as well!

Have you ever had him around other rats before?  I have more males than females and although I dont intro super older males that are set in their ways unless they are really chilled out, I have had luck with younger males getting along pretty good, but still, females are easier in most cases.   Its just not worth putting an intact female with an intact male unless you have real medical proof she is sterile.