# 1 or 2 rats?



## gen120 (May 14, 2007)

Hello!
I am planning on getting a rat or 2 in the next few months, (were remodling a house and then moving in in about a month)
But..I am homeschooled and could let the rat be out of the cage most or all of the day,but would it still get lonely if I let it out all day and played with it?
I wanted 1 rat but I don't want my rat to be unhappy because it has no one to play with or snuggle.


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## mnic001 (May 9, 2007)

Please consider two rats. They are very social creatures and do much better when they have a rat playmate. That being said, I know that lone rats given enough attention can grow up happy and well-adjusted. It's not much additional cost to own a second rat, and I'm sure they would appreciate it.


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## ladylady (Apr 5, 2007)

yeah, get two so they can cause trouble together while you are sleeping or away out


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## Kimmiekins (Apr 14, 2007)

Please don't get just one rat. Rats are VERY social animals and even if you had them playing all the hours you were awake, it wouldn't be enough. They need a rat buddy to cuddle with, to play with when they're in the cage, to groom and be groomed by, etc.

Only VERY occasinally do you find a rat that should be kept alone and in many cases, neutering can change that.

Rats really should not be alone. Humans can't do everything that another rat can do, no matter how much attention you give them. People do keep rats single, yes, but the rat will never be as happy as they would be with a playmate. Humans can only do so much.

Two rats isn't much more time, work or money then one.


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## lostbutnotforgot (Apr 19, 2007)

Get two! I only have one for cat reasons, but if you don't have to worry about some rabid beast jumping on you to eat your precious ratties, two are twice as fun!

(And even if you have cats you can still easily get two rats. I just have one cat who will stop at nothing to eat my girl. Most cats aren't obsessed.)


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Please consider two... If I recall your household has 4 cats (amongst many other animals). For sanity's sake, I would think the rattie wouldn't be able to be with you all the time...


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

i had a lone rat once but now i have 3 and i think the 3 are happyer than 1 they need friends


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## thegrotto (May 11, 2007)

Get two.


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## Vixie (Jul 21, 2006)

I think just about everyone here is gonna say go for two, because they really are happier in pairs or groups. 


Just be sure they are same-sex pairs.


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## twilight (Apr 20, 2007)

Definetly get two if you can! They love to snuggle and play with each other.


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## Strike2 (Apr 26, 2007)

2 for sure.


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

Just in case you haven't got the message, get 2! 

Seriously, though, you can only be there so many hours of the day. Rats really shouldn't be kept alone... they need somebody to cuddle with/play with/groom at night or when you are out, too. Your rat will be mentally healthier and happier with another rat for company.


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## gen120 (May 14, 2007)

thanks everyone!!
I will try to get 2 if I can!


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Hey lost, I just thought you should know my cat seems SO MUCH more obsessed with my hairless rat then my others. She's never going to attack or touch my rats more than a sniff though cause she knows their mommies babies and she is a good cat but for the longest time she went to extreme lengths to watch Bert at all times.

Just thought you would like to know that.


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

* OK 2!!! lol got my 2 cents in  do you have 2 rats already in mind? or are you adopting?? *


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## gen120 (May 14, 2007)

no...I was planning on getting 1 rat,but if 1 rat wil be lonely without a friend I will get 2!
No...I was going to get 1 from Petco.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

That's all fine and good but it's usually easier to find a properly socialised and tons healthier baby from a breeder. It's also easier to find a properly socialised rat from a rat shelter, or an exotic animals shelter. Up to you ultimately but if you want an easy to take care of happy friendly rat right off the bat I would go with one of those places. It is possible to find a well socialised rat from a pet store, Bert is from a pet store and VERY well socialised as all the employees played with him and took him out daily, but really it isn't very likely, especially from a PetCo.

Just to warn you, look for a rat that will come up to you instead of cower, that isn't sneezing and put on bedding that is carefresh that is kept relatively clean in a cage with the least rats possible (but not by itself) if you go the petstore route. Many petstore rats aren't bred well so expect and be ready for vet treatments right off the bat and tumors down the road. Not saying it WILL happen and it won't happen with a breeder rat, but it is more likely. You should be ready for that kind of thing either way.

Also make sure they are the same sex! If you really want to go the petstore route I would go with petsmart instead. They seem to have better rats and take better care of their animals in general.


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

if you go the pet store route and are getting females be wary of their age and if they're caged with males. you don't want to take two rats home and have another 24 3 weeks down the road like i did. its very stressful and though babies are wonderful little creatures they're really hard to find homes for and having that many rats is hard to make sure they all have personal time with you every day too. basically you don't want that hassle when you're just starting out in the rat world. 

you'll want someone between 4 and 6 (7 at the utmost) weeks. or go to a store that separates the genders. that or go for males instead. 

the risk of pregnancy is why i prefer to rescue or adopt from a breeder, though that's not to say i don't still buy from petstores. i do make sure they are young young young though so i know they won't be pregnant. when i go sweetipie there was this pibald female rat that was absolutely adorable and i was very tempted in taking her too but the belly on her screamed pregnancy... she probably wasn't anymore then 8 weeks old either


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## ladylady (Apr 5, 2007)

Im gona go for rescue or a breeder next time.
Just a quick comment
Poppy was cowered right in the corner (of the cramped, poorly ventilated tank with wood shavings in it) and I chose her becasue she was shy 
She still can be shy and scares easily but learns very quickly and is very affectionate once she is trusting 
Good luck findig your ratties


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## gen120 (May 14, 2007)

thanks for all the info!!!
The Petco's here have the males and females seprate in 2 different cages,males in 1 and female in another,and the rats are well taken care of and seem to be very happy.
I was going to let the rat pick me instead,and take it or them to the vet right after I get them,the vet is right down the road from the Petco I am getting them from!


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Just remember... some Petco's will not let you reach into the cage. If you are bitten that's their liability.


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## Holly (Dec 31, 2006)

Um...I'm a little late here, but I'm going to speak up for the "minority vote." In some cases, I believe that it is OK to have just one rat...but then, you have to take your commitment to your rat ~very~ seriously.

Here are some plusses and minuses of having a lone, male rat, from the owner of a lone, male rat. (Before him, I also had a lone, male rat.)

I am in a rather unique position regarding the way I spend my time. Often, I am up at night, as well as certain hours during the day. Sometimes, I catnap a couple of hours on, a couple of hours off. Because of my sleep habits and my "time" situation, I thought one rat would work very well for me.

As a freelance musician and artist, when I work, I do most of it at home. I share my projects with Gus, my rat. My music station is right next to his home, so he can come out and get involved with that, when he wants to. He has his own set of paints, and we have "painted together" as well...me on my canvas, and Gus on his, of course!  We also like to take short trips in the car, to smell what other places smell like.

What I was looking for in my pet rat was someone who would be a best friend and nearly constant companion. I've talked this over with several people, including vets and specialists, who are familiar with my situation, and so far, I've been getting a "thumbs up" on one rat working with my lifesstyle.

Of COURSE, if you want to have any kind of life of your own, you should definitely consider two. The fact that it's just Gus and me means that certain things in my life are limited: I can't go out for all day-and-night trips, and I certainly can't take vacations, because I'm crucial to Gus' life and happiness, and it would be irresponsible of me to leave him without me. (Whenever anyone suggests a vacation within driving distance, I tell them that I will go if Gus can go, but they are all afraid of getting caught, and getting kicked out of the hotel. :lol: )

Gregor, my first rat, did everything with me too. That was one of the reasons it was so hard to lose him - we were "partners."

Anyway, for anyone hoping to have a fairly regular lifestyle that doesn't revolve around the happiness of the rat, it's probably a wiser choice to have two.

Just wanted to point out that one ~can~ be happy, if you're his "best friend rat" 24 hours a day!


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## Holly (Dec 31, 2006)

Sorry - me again. I thought I'd better emphasize/clarify something, for the original poster of the question, and also for anyone else who is wondering about this.

_If you should choose to get only one rat, your life no longer belongs to you. Your life belongs to your rat, who is dependent upon you to have a happy and stable and full emotional life._

Here's a "real life" example. (A VERY "real life" example, in my case.)

I have been having a whole lot of dental trouble in the past months. If I told you that I have had 10 root canals and 1 extraction/implant so far, and that there is more to go, would you believe me? It's true.

You must think that either I live on the street, or come from a family where nobody ever brushes their teeth, but neither one is true. I come from a family that stressed good oral hygeine, and regular dentist visits. As far as I can tell, there are two reasons for all of this unbearable pain in my mouth: 1. I inheirited bad teeth on both my mother's and my father's side, and 2. My former dentist didn't really know what he was doing. We've found a lot of bad dental work that he did, and an example of his advice is, "If you get a toothache, wait and see if it goes away after a couple of days." (With my mouth being so vulnerable, obviously, if I experience any pain, I should see a dentist ~immediately!~)

I don't want to even get started on the price of all this; I could put a down payment on a home.

But to the point of how this relates to rats:

Since March, I've been in tremendous pain from teeth that need work, and also teeth that are recovering from work. Yesterday, I had two root canals.

After two root canals, you pretty much want to just sleep the rest of the day and night.

HOWEVER, since I have Gus and he has me and we love one another, that is not what I did. I took Gus out for his playtime in the evening, as usual. I owe it to him. I'm his whole life.

-----------------------------------------

To wrap it up:

I would advise NOT to get a single rat, unless you really, really, really want a major commitment.

Having said that, there's nothing quite like being your rat's "one and only." I wouldn't trade my relationship with Gus for the world!


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## crapola (Feb 12, 2007)

i just got a solitary rat from a friend of my daugher. meggsy belonged to this girls mother, then to the girl, who has an almost 2yr old son. non of them can devote the time meggsy needed with her person as a solitary rat. i already had 4 ratties, 2 per cage. i put meggsy in with soot & ash, the younger of my rattie pairs, for now, until i get her her own cage mate. for a rattie used to her own company, she fits in very well with all my rats, and they have all accepted her as one of them. 

definitely get your ratties in pairs, unless, like holly, you can devote almost 100% of your time to a rat!


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## Holly (Dec 31, 2006)

"Definitely get your rats in pairs, unless, like Holly, you can devote almost 100% of your time to your rat."

:lol: LOL! I never thought of it quite like that before, but it's true! I'm such an animal lover that I'm living my life around a rat, and certain other animals that live here! I must be insane!

Listen to crapola, and everyone else here - they know what they're talking about.

--------------------------------------

crapola: what's the difference between crapola and shinola? I've heard the expression, "He can't tell s*** from..." with both of them.


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## crapola (Feb 12, 2007)

holly, i have no idea what shinola is... must be an american thing, although i lived there for four years, i never heard that word used. probably its the same as crapola, lol!!


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Shinola's a kind of shoe polish from way back when...


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## kaplods (Jan 27, 2014)

All three of my previous rats were "onlies," but only because I didn't know better. Last Sunday, after nine rat-less years, I brought home a new rat. She's currently also an only, but I expect that to be temporary.

I didn't intend to get a rat at all, just rat supplies. I had found a decent (but a little small) cage for $5 at Goodwill. Our Goodwill and other thriftstores get cages in all the time, so I felt confident I could get a baby rat or two and get bigger cages as I found them, before the babies outgrew them.

After buying the cage, we went across the street to the Ace Hardware for food and toys. I saw two gray boys. One was a dove gray berhshire and the other charcoal). I thought the brothers were handsome, and then clerk said the magic word "Dumbos." I had always wanted a Dumbo. Their ears were big and round, but set too high to look like the classic dumbo, but then the clerk showed me the boys' sister in another cage. A blazed dove gray variegated with a more classic Dumbo face. I fell in love, but she was the only female in the cage.

Turns out she was pregnant (why didn't I get the boys) and yesterday (Sunday) morning had one stillborn pup.

I'm afraid to risk buying a female companion without evidence that she's had no contact with males. I'm considering getting a neutered male, possibly even buying one of her brothers and having him neutered, but I'll need another cage for presurgery and postsurgery time until he's completely semen-free.

It may take a while to find Princess her perfect roommate, but I am on disability, and spend the vast majority of my time at home - so I have lots and lots of time to spend with her until we find her the perfect rat friend.


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## Andyurgay (Jun 10, 2013)

Kaplods, where on earth do you live that you can get rats at Ace Hardware? I've heard of some hardware places having new pet departments but not live pets. Especially as pretty as your girl sounds  that's craziness.


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## Daize (Jun 8, 2013)

Andyurgay said:


> Kaplods, where on earth do you live that you can get rats at Ace Hardware? I've heard of some hardware places having new pet departments but not live pets. Especially as pretty as your girl sounds  that's craziness.


Not sure where Kaplods is, but there's an Ace Hardware in Lyons Kansas that has a pet section, with live pets. You can get fish, rabbits, rats, mice gerbils, snakes, lizards, supplies and they even had a Cockatoo in there. Not sure if they still have pets, but 4 years ago they did. Lyons is a very small town and the Hardware store added live animals to help bring in more business.

I've also seen a Pet Shop that had a room for selling coins and baseball cards. I guess sometimes business do what they need to do, just to stay in business.


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## kaplods (Jan 27, 2014)

Andyurgay said:


> Kaplods, where on earth do you live that you can get rats at Ace Hardware? I've heard of some hardware places having new pet departments but not live pets. Especially as pretty as your girl sounds  that's craziness.


I live in a tiny town in Northcentral Wisconsin called Weston. So tiny it's not actually a town, it's called "The Village of Weston."

That I'm aware of, the Ace is the only place in town that sells any animals, except maybe fish. There are chain petstores in nearby cities and towns, but I don't know of any nearby private rat breeders. The nearest I could find was about 45 minutes to an hour away.

Our Ace is a bit like a Walmart for a town too small to have a Walmart, in addition to the standard lawn and garden and hardware stuff, they sell just about everything including pets, shelf-stable groceries (canned and packaged goods) baby supplies, dolls, toys, craft supplies, fishing tackle, and live bait

Their pet and pet suppies department is small, but very clean and well kept. I've always found the staff in the pet dept to be very caring, knowledgeable, and conscientious, so it seemed like (and I still believe it was) a better option than a big chain.

They're also more likely to have fancies because they buy from smaller breeders, and because some of the staff are rat fanciers themselves.

Their feeder rats are more expensive than the chain stores, but their fancies are less expensive and tend to be more exotic breeds and coat types/markings.

I doubt that the mistake was the store's, because they take obvious care to prevent such accidents. Instead I suspect a local breeder made the mistake and either knowingly or out of ignorance passed on their mistake to the store.

I know it can happen in-store. It only takes one untrained (or mischievious) caretaker and a few seconds of carelessness, but the staff have always impressed me.

It's an old, old-fashioned, family-run store, and they actually take pride in knowing everything about everything they sell. Unlike Walmart, Petsmart, and Petco, you never get that blank-eyed stare when you ask a question. 

If a staffer doesn't know, it's probably because they're new, but they already know who will know (and it's always someone who is actually in the store).

In our chain stores, it always seems that the only person who knows what's going on, is apparently someone who is apparently never in the store. They're always off that day, at lunch or running some errand, or at another store. Half the time, you won't even get that much information, just the blank stare and a shrug.


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## kaplods (Jan 27, 2014)

Andyurgay said:


> Kaplods, where on earth do you live that you can get rats at Ace Hardware? I've heard of some hardware places having new pet departments but not live pets. Especially as pretty as your girl sounds <img src="images/smilies/smiley.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smiley" smilieid="1" class="inlineimg"> that's craziness.


  <br><br>I live in a tiny town in Northcentral Wisconsin called Weston.  So tiny it's not actually a town, it's called "The Village of Weston."<br><br>It's the only place in town that sells any animals, except maybe fish.  There are chain petstores in nearby cities and towns, but I don't know of any nearby private rat breeders.  The nearest I could find was about 45 minutes to an hour away.<br><br>Our Ace is a bit like a Walmart for a town too small to have a Walmart, they sell just about everything including pets, shelf-stable groceries (canned and packaged goods) baby supplies, dolls and toys and craft supplies.<br><br>Their pet and pet suppies department is small, but very clean and well kept.  I've always found the staff in the pet dept to be very caring, knowledgeable, and conscientious, so it seemed like  (and I still believe it was) a better option than a big chain.<br><br>They're also more likely to have fancies because they buy from smaller breeders, and because some of the staff are rat fanciers themselves.<br><br>Their feeder rats are more expensive than the chain stores, but their fancies are less expensive and tend to be more exotic breeds and coat types/markings.<br><br>I doubt that the mistake was the store's, because they take obvious care to prevent such accidents.  Instead I suspect a local breeder made the mistake and either knowingly or out of ignorance passed on their mistake to the store.<br><br>I know it can happen in-store.  It only takes one untrained (or mischievious) caretaker and a few seconds of carelessness, but the staff have always impressed me.<br><br>It's an old, old-fashioned, family-run store, and they actually take pride in knowing everything about everything they sell.  Unlike Walmart, Petsmart, and Petco, you never get that blank-eyed stare when you ask a question.  <br><br>If a staffer doesn't know, it's probably because they're new, but they already know who will know (and it's always someone who is actually in the store).<br><br>In our chain stores, it always seems that the only person who knows what's going on, is apparently someone who is apparently never in the store.  They're always off that day, at lunch or running some errand, or at another store.  Half the time, you won't even get that much information, just the blank stare and a shrug.<br><br><br><br>


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