# rat play dates?



## amandahoney (May 14, 2007)

what do you think of this idea?

i posted a while back about my friend with two rats she wanted to give away because of lack of time for them. well... one of the rats suddenly and inexplicably died, leaving one one-year-old female rat alone. my friend still doesn't have time for this rat, but she for some reason doesn't want to give her away. the rat's shy, and a little bit cage-aggressive. my friend has to leave her at her dad's house, somewhat far away, when she spends most of her time at her mom's or boyfriend's house, or here. her dad feeds and waters her rat, but that's about it.

i can't take her, even though four of my girls are the same age, approximately, because i'm feeling crowded as it is.

what i'm wondering is if introducing them carefully as PLAYMATES and not CAGEMATES, without the intention of them living together, would be okay. my friend spends quite a bit of time at my house, and when she's here eventually the rats could all play together out in the playpen.

what do you think? has anyone ever attempted introductions without intending to move them in together?

(if introductions go extremely well and they'll play together, who knows, maybe i'll get a bigger cage soon... this is NOT my sneaky longterm plan...)


----------



## Hallie-Mae (Jul 31, 2008)

I think it's a lovely idea  I'm sure lots of people have attempted this, but I think it's best to get advice off one of them as opposed to me, with my inexperience on the subject.


----------



## CritterLoverFL (Aug 3, 2008)

bad idea on more levels than one

first red flag: one rat died of unknown reasons

You can potentially expose your rats to ailments by taking rats in & out of your home when you do not follow strict quarantine procedures. Because you have no control on what goes on in your friend's home the single rat could be exposed to things when not at your home & the next time it comes over it could have an illness incubating. If you bring a rat into your home & you expose it to your own rats you should plan on that rat being a permanent resident & follow quarantine guidelines.

second red flag: rats don't view guests as welcomed

Rats live in bonded communities & outsiders are viewed as intruders unless they are introduced properly & remain with the group for life. Every time that rat is removed from the community it will be a stranger when it returns. You risk injury & unnecessary stress on all involved.


----------



## Hallie-Mae (Jul 31, 2008)

Errr okay nevermind my first post them 8O I just thought it'd be okay because I saw people introduce their rats at shows and things like that


----------



## lovinmyworm (Feb 18, 2008)

Sounds like a giant pain to deal with if you ask me! You will have to qt the rats before hand, (her rat just died of unknown causes so an extra long qt), you have to fully trust this person that her rat has had no symptoms of anything while in qt. You will need to qt your rats that will be playing with hers before and after, which means more hassle. All for what, for an hour or so of play time every now and then? By the time the rats do qt it will be at least 3 week before they can play, then qt them after their playdate to see if they caught anything, then do it all over again...... yeah bad idea. 

Not just that, but introductions take TIME... lots of time so putting them together to play isn't going to work. How are you going to put their cages next to each other so they can smell the other rat? How are you going to switch their cages for a bit so again they smell the other rat? How are you going to do this and neutral meeting grounds for awhile to see how they act all while this rat lives at a different home?


----------



## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

I thought I'd heard of people doing this and it had worked, maybe not then.


----------



## Hallie-Mae (Jul 31, 2008)

Lol, same here stace :lol: My bad


----------



## amandahoney (May 14, 2007)

yeah. you have some good points. i probably won't do it. it was just a thought. i feel bad for the rat living alone with my stubborn friend, and i'm kind of grasping at straws.


----------

