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re-introducing a rat to his brothers.

589 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  starry78  
#1 ·
Hi all! I'm very new to the site but I was hoping for some advice, if possible please.I bought my two 14 week old male rats (Loki who is quiet and shy and Bartholomew who is boisterous and inquisitive) 10 days ago from a large pet shop around a 2 hour journey from my home, there were 3 male siblings in the cage but as I was only intending on having two rats I hadn't taken enough money to buy all three. I have been feeling terribly guilty for leaving one behind and as we need to pick up some rat nuggets and bedding from the shop, I phoned ahead and asked if the male rat was still there and he is. So the advice I was hoping for is whether they would all remember eachother and if it would be easy to re-introduce the 3rd rat to his brothers? I can't afford another cage to slowly introduce them, as has been advised previously but I have a 3ft high, 2 ft deep by 4ft wide cage so there is plenty of room for them all. I'm very conscious of waffling so I'll stop there! :)many thanks for reading, Andrea.
 
#2 ·
If they are young, even if they aren't cage mates, they don't need to be introduced again. Wow that's a big cage. the size of the cage should be big enough that if they were to fight, they can easily escape each other. if you need too, try to split the cage in two. rats have an incredible memory, and since it wasn't that long ago, they should be fine.
 
#3 ·
Thankyou very much for your advice, the boys are our first rats and I'm trying really hard to do everything right, my son will be so excited that we can go and pick their brother up tomorrow :) The cage is ridiculously big, I bought it second hand from a chinchilla sanctuary and the ratties look so tiny and a little lost in it right now!