A Tip For New Rat Owners: Don’t Get Too Many At The Same Time!

When researching rat care, you will come to learn that rats are a lifelong pet. What this means is that before your older rats start to pass away, you need to introduce younger rats to your mischief to ensure you never end up with a lone rat, and to establish a consistent social dynamic within your group. This might really excite you, or it might give you second thoughts about adding rats to your family. For us, it was excitement, and we were so hooked from day one of bringing our rats home that I cannot imagine my life without them.

There is a sad side to owning rats. Rodents do not have long lifespans, and for such big characters it can be really hard to lose your best friends after such a short time.

You can lessen this painful experience by not taking on too many same age rats at one time. We made this mistake. We took on too many rats of the same age, and now, as they reach the end of their natural lifespans, we are having to grieve too many at the same time. It’s rough.

So, that is my advice to you today, do not take on too many same age rats in one go.

Remember, you should always buy/adopt rats in pairs, and I would highly recommend keeping rats in group sizes of 3 or more. Reputable breeders and rescues will not sell or let you adopt single rats (apart from in the odd extreme circumstance) and the reason for this is that rats need same age company, and it is much less stressful for a small group of rats to be introduced to another small group, as in that case they at least have one other friend that they know. You can read more about my experience with introductions in my rat intro diaries, and in the video below I share my own experience about our mistake in taking on too many rats in one go…

Thank you for visiting Fluffy Jellyfish today, if you have any questions please drop them in the comments below! I have a question for you! Do you have any tips or advice for new rat owners that you wish you have known when you first started out with your rat family?

See you next time!

Fluffy Jellyfish out.