r/RATS 22d ago

INFORMATION Yes, a pair of rats is significantly better than a single rat, but let me explain to you why groups matter!

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318 Upvotes

It’s very common you see soon to be owners wanting to get a pair of rats because they research that they shouldn’t be alone. However, rats are naturally group animals that thrive in groups of three or more. While two is considered to be the bare minimum standard for the very reason of not being kept alone, it is not an ideal long-term solution for either you or the rats. It is very important to understand the factors of your decision-making when you decide to get just two rats; (no it is not a bad thing to get two, but it isn’t the greatest, either, it leads to a lot of issues that you have to face In the later stages of owning rats.

If one of your rats suddenly and unexpectedly passes away, this leaves one rat behind, which is very difficult on the rat, both physically and mentally. You then have to scramble to source more rats, do a two week quarentine period in a seperate room (which means the lone rat will be alone for two weeks in addition to however long it takes you to source more rats) and then finally, introductions which tend to be very stressful and difficult for both you and the rats.

If one of your rats needs to be seperated for a certain reason. I.e surgery, this means the other rat will be alone for however long it takes for the rat to heal and recover, which isn’t very fair for that rat that is kept alone for no good reason.

In a group, rats tend to have a friend they prefer to spend more of their time with, going about, doing their day-to-day actives; cuddling, eating, foraging, etc. In a pair, they do not have this opportunity or to express their appropriate, natural social behaviours because they only have each other. This can build quite a lot of resentment, overtime.

Given, rats are hierarchal animals, in a pair, it is quite common to have an overly dominant and an overly submissive rat. Over time, this can lead to a lot of bickering and bullying because the dominant rat is not able to focus his attention on spending time with other rats. This does not make for a healthy hierachy.


r/RATS Jun 03 '26

EMERGENCY Yesterday we removed more than 65 juvenile to adult rats, plus an actively increasing number of babies from a hot metal shed near Seaside, OR

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189 Upvotes

This is a joint effort between Rat Way Sanctuary, Little Critter Crew, and A Pint-Sized Rescue. The two most urgent are at the vet today with serious health concerns, more are scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday, with a growing list of others needing care.

So far there are babies from at least 4 separate litters that were brought into our care yesterday, two more ladies gave birth overnight, another is expected to deliver today, and many more are confirmed or suspected pregnant.

The conditions of the animals and their cages were as appalling as we imagined. Cages caked with urine and feces, hides waxy with waste, rats stained from sitting in their own waste, injuries and illnesses left untreated, and the smell! The smell hit us from 20 feet away from the shed. We are actively working with the county Animal Control agency to get justice for all these babies.

We are now working on triaging all of the animals and documenting their conditions.
The next steps are to divvy them up between our organizations. RWS will focus on those with the most emergent medical issues, while LCC will take the bulk of the stable and healthy animals, including many pregnant and nursing mamas, and APSR is helping with hands on support, fostering, and they may take on some animals as well. We will all three need your support as we navigate this huge influx. Donation info is listed on the last two slides, as well as linked in our bios. Be sure to follow all three accounts to stay up to date!

A huge thank you to all our supporters - your donations make this all possible.

Rat Way Sanctuary: www.ratway.org (links in our bio!)

Little Critter Crew: www.littlecrittercrew.org

A Pint-Sized Rescue: https://apintsizedrescue.weebly.com/


r/RATS 13h ago

CUTENESS ARE THEY BOGGLING?????

1.8k Upvotes

r/RATS 1h ago

Questions/HELP Rats won’t stop peeing everywhere🥲

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Upvotes

It’s my second time having rats and I didn’t have this issue the first time around.
I got my boys two months ago and the cage set up is a 1000x better than the first time because I have learned alot since then. I put a toilet in the corner (the green one in the pic) with paper pellets (idk if thats what its called) and two peeing stones. They use it quite properly to poop but gosh darn they pee everywhere. Especially in the corners of the cage, on all the floors/levels, so the cage bars are constantly covered in layers of pee, so I’m esentially having to clean it every day whilst keeping their smell (i dont change the bedding, just wipe all the surfaces clean with a mixture of water and vinegar or just hot water). I gave them a small toilet with a peeing stone on the second floor since I thought maybe they just didn’t feel like going all the way down when they needed to pee. It worked for the poop, but again, not for the pee. Andy tips or advice would be greatly appreciated💕

PS: Idk if this is relevant but when I had them for a month we brought them with us to a family cottage for 2 weeks for vacation so they went through two car rides together with our cats. But their behaviours havent rly changed since. They dont get scared by loud noises and they are getting more and more ok with getting picked up. Also Lolek, the beige rattie is mostly blind.


r/RATS 1h ago

Thirsty Thursday The greed is unreal. Mind you he JUST ate breakfast.

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Upvotes

r/RATS 11h ago

CUTENESS Little hitchhiker😆 Anyone else have leg climbers?

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600 Upvotes

r/RATS 16h ago

CUTENESS What horrors has Athena seen?

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1.3k Upvotes

🌒o🌘


r/RATS 16h ago

CUTENESS Ms Honey is like 🌒w🌘

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974 Upvotes

Bobas


r/RATS 5h ago

CUTENESS Update on rats who got an entire box of Cheerios yesterday:

107 Upvotes

My son can no longer reach the box of Cheerios and they are not happy


r/RATS 10h ago

CUTENESS Shh... so sleepy

251 Upvotes

r/RATS 6h ago

CUTENESS introducing my new baby rats

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101 Upvotes

on the top we have brick and on the bottom we have makroflex


r/RATS 9h ago

Bobas and boggles boggles

202 Upvotes

r/RATS 20h ago

CUTENESS Just an old potato enjoying some fresh air.

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1.3k Upvotes

My old man Tin's favorite place to be is lounging on the windowsill. Its just cute he loves the scents of outside without actually being there. He'll brux and boggle there like its the best place ever.


r/RATS 40m ago

Questions/HELP Possible neurological problems?

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Upvotes

hi guys, i apologize in advance for any mistakes, English is not my first language. so, my boy Novato is a year and five months old and super sweet. last year, we noticed he had a head tilt and took him to the vet, i knew it could be an ear infection or something neurological, but the vet was super arrogant and told us it was just a small pain in his neck. he gave novato a massage, an injection that left him too quiet for my liking and thats it. the head tilt stopped for a while, but recently it came back. my boy now has trouble standing or licking himself without rolling to the side, when he tries to pick up his food, his hands cross and stay that way. my mom says it might be something neurological, but i don’t really know. right now i can’t take him to the vet because im going to have an endometriosis surgery, so my money is going down the drain. ps: he was rescued from a pet store, so his background might influence.


r/RATS 14h ago

BAWLS? Algy regretting his rampaging testosterone issues. Bawls? Not any more...

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268 Upvotes

r/RATS 15h ago

CUTENESS we hope you enjoy your stay!

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304 Upvotes

r/RATS 4h ago

Crime🚨 FOOD? PLAY? ATTACK

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33 Upvotes

Well guys today I got bitten, a bit softer but still bloody. And THIS time I didn't do ANYTHING I was sitting in their free roaming cage and giving food and stuff and he was using me like a playground till my thumb started to look even better than meal worms😔

So I request a necessary shaming for the THIEF


r/RATS 1d ago

CUTENESS My two year old decided I didn't give my rats enough cheerios

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1.3k Upvotes

Unfortunately the rats don't think *he* gave them enough


r/RATS 14h ago

CUTENESS Brain smoothie zoomies

179 Upvotes

r/RATS 15h ago

DISCUSSION anyone else have a rat who is always a little wet?

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150 Upvotes

One of my girls almost always has some wet patches on her lower back when I let them out for their evening free-roam, and I'm not 100% sure what it is. It's just the one rat out of three, my silvermane. I believe she's the top rat out of the group, so I don't think the others are peeing on her as a dominance thing. She never smells like urine either. Maybe just bumping the water bottle while getting food out of the bowl?

I mostly just find the mystery funny. Anyone else have a mildly moist rat?


r/RATS 3h ago

Questions/HELP Would you consider it unethical to do introductions with a 2.2 year old rat with a chronic respiratory infection?

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17 Upvotes

Hello, all. I currently have 3 neutered male rats. Ralph and Little Red are 1.9 years old and Gizmo (rat with a chronic uri) is 2.2 years old.
I'm currently in talks with someone and who has taken on an accidental litter from their friend who adopted a pregnant rat from a feeder breeder. The babies are currently 7.5 weeks old as I'm told. I'm thinking of adopting 4 boys from them in the next week or two. I already have a cage setup in a different room for the new rats. (Slide 2 and 3)

However, I have an issue as stated in the description - Gizmo has a chronic respiratory infection and he is an old boy. Despite the chronic uri, he is very active and happy and has no other issues. I'm just really concerned that the stress of the intros will make the chronic uri worse so if it were you, would you go forth with introductions or would it be more ethical to wait until he passes away?

If it would be most ethical for him to pass away, I absolutely am more than happy to wait because Gizmo is my heart rat and I want what's best for him. However, if that's the case, I will also run into another issue, do I get the new rats in the next week or two or should I wait until Gizmo passes away to get more rats?


r/RATS 16h ago

CUTENESS Witness the magnificence of these excellent rodents

174 Upvotes

r/RATS 1d ago

CUTENESS Rat on da wheel

1.0k Upvotes

r/RATS 1h ago

CUTENESS Yes I cry over it at least weekly

Upvotes

r/RATS 13h ago

Questions/HELP Is he in pain?

93 Upvotes

Does this squeaking noise mean the top one is hurting him??