Comments | ratties: rat playdates

allyraito in ratties

rat playdates

Feb 24, 2014 18:29

Hey all. My old rat, Charlie, passed away recently. Left behind is Benzene, an older rat who is very lonely and depressed since his best friend died. Unfortunately I'm not able to get a new rat since in a few months I will be moving in with someone who is allergic (who would be willing to put up with the symptoms for one, but not two). I'm ( Read more... )

Comments 3

serena_vox February 25 2014, 12:00:00 UTC

I'm honestly left to wonder what the difference is between one and two rats. Allergies are allergies and I doubt one more rat makes any sort of difference.

I've always had my rats housed together, and only separated one when the need for quarantine arose. I can see the concept behind playdates but the thing is that when you introduce rats, they get to know each other and typically you'd go on to make them cage mates, however if you are not intending to make them cagemates, they'd be strangers to each other the next time you introduce them. It seems like a very stressful situation all around for all ratties involved as they'd have to go through that stressful reintroduction every time you put them together.

icedtei February 25 2014, 17:00:43 UTC

As someone who is allergic to rats, one rat vs two makes no real difference tbh. I have had a single rat as she was a rescue who disliked other rats and now I have a pair. No real difference.. Most people are actually allergic to their urine anyway which gets to you via their nails. As long as you keep everything clean there should honestly be no issue... And mine are pretty bad. I get hives all over, swell up, etc if I am not careful.

Playdates sound like they would be stressful.. And dont really help your issue. Rats need constant companionship. :/ Having another rat over every now and then does not give them that... Plus if they do take a liking to a playmate it would just be sad again when the playmate vanished at the end of the session..

liquidmistletoe February 25 2014, 18:25:28 UTC

I agree with the other comments - assuming they'd all live in the same cage/area, I really don't see the difference between having one rat or two, or honestly even three (I only say this because you say Benzene is old, so unless you adopt an equally elderly rat to be his buddy, you'll end up in the same situation if you only got one). But then I am not qualified to make a fact statement about that, but I am not sure how that could really matter ( ... )