# Keeping rats and guinea pigs in same room?



## gal5150 (Aug 14, 2012)

We have 2 new male rats, 5 weeks old, and 2 female adolescent guinea pigs. Wondering if after quarentine and we're sure the rats are healthy we can move thier cage into the same room as the guinea pig enclosure for a few hours in the afternoon and then again in the evening for a few hours, as this room gets decent traffic and the rats would get more "walk by" attention than in thier current room. They will have NO free range time or direct contact with the guinea pigs ever.

Will this stress everyone out too much? Now the stupid question, will it bother the rattie boys to be in the same room when the guinea pig girls are in heat? I know they are different species, but just had to ask. 

Trying to be a good, and informed owner!
Sarah


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Wild rats have issues with other small animals, often eating them, but I don't know of any cases where domestic ratties prey on guinea pigs. I can be pretty certain that most ratties won't be too stressed by the guinea pigs in the same room maybe even sharing supervised free range time in a large room, I can't say how the piggies would feel about it though.

For the most part I recommend that ratties spend as little time in their cage as possible and the phrasing of your question concerns me that your rats aren't getting out enough if you are moving their cage to another room to see walk by traffic. Ratties really prefer to play with people more than to watch them walk by.

In any case, good luck with your ratties and piggies.


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## gal5150 (Aug 14, 2012)

Thanks for responding! We just got our boys on Monday and as I began to expect, one has a URI. So, thats why we're taking it slow with them and housing them in a quiter area of the house. Dont want to stress them out with the guinea pigs,cats, and dog right away. We intend to take the boys everywhere with us once they are feeling better and have gotten used to us.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Young rats often get the sneezies when they come home from the pet shop. It might be a mild URI or an allergy to the great big world and should go away in about a week or so. Even if your ratties aren't feeling altogether well get your hands on them and hug, cuddle and handle them as much as possible. Getting used to your home includes getting used to you. There's a certain advantage you have starting the minute you get your rats home in bonding with them to establish a pack order centered around you right off the bat. 

The wierd myth that ratties should get used to their home before meeting their new owners might apply to certain older rats that might have been mistreated, but for young otherwise friendly and curious rats, get them onto you as soon as you can. This way you can actually help them to adjust to their strange new world and they will love you more for it.

As to taking your rats everywhere... Our rats are true "shoulder rats", they do go everywhere with us. We've been doing it for quite a while, more or less survived a rather steep learning curve and developed training techniques and a set of practices that work. It is very time consuming to train a shoulder rat. Until you get someone that knows what they are doing to teach you how to do it reasonably safely, I'd strongly recommend you keep your rats indoors. The easiest way to get your rats killed is to take them outside.


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## gal5150 (Aug 14, 2012)

Thanks for the feedback! I have been interacting with the boys since we got them home with two 20 min one on one's and number of other types of interaction like cage next to my bed, reading to the kids next to their cage, hand in to pick up poop, or offer treats, etc. daily. Just have not been too keen on letting the other animals near them as they are pretty skittish, but getting better daily. I want to develop a level of trust and security with them myself before allowing nosy predators (2 cats, dog) to sniff and stare at them/their cage. As for the URI, Ferb has no sneezes...rapid respiration, lethargy, hiccup accompanied by chirping. Vet gave us a course of antibiotics for 14 days and hoping to see him perk up soon here. I've not had rats for probably almost 20 yrs but when I did, all but one were shoulder rats. I can see from get go that Phineas is a natural and Ferb will need much more work and may never be a shoulder rat. However, he very well may be a purse or pouch rat! . My one who was not a reliable shoulder surfer still went everywhere, she just traveled in a suitable carrier but still enjoyed her time out in the community. I agree that without proper training and trust, taking them outside is a bad idea. We've only had them 5 days, so we have a ways to go.Guinea pigs are a totally new pet to me and have learned a lot in the past 6 months...but wanting to check with others to make sure I won't stress anyone out.Again, Thanx for responding. I appreciate it!Sarah


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

If you've done it before, then you know the risks... Personally, shoulder rats are the only way to go for me, but too many people think its a way cool idea and they fail to understand that without building that special trust relationship and putting in the necessary time getting to know how your rats will react when stressed, killing your rats is as easy as walking across a busy parking lot or closing a car door.

I'm sorry to hear, it's not just the common new rat sneezes. Yours is the second recent case of new rats coming home with a URI I've read here, it's strange that it doesn't show up in the store. 

Welcome back to the fancy.


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## Rat-1- (Jul 22, 2012)

I keep my two rats and rabbit together in the same room. I never leave their cages open. I'm not scared That they'll purposely hurt each other but the accidents. They get along pretty well.


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