getting in female advice

Hi,
One of my female rats had to be put to sleep on Saturday. I feel really sorry for her partner Elphi and would like to get a new rat to keep her company. I've read up on techniques on how to introduce a new rat but was considering can I get 2 new rats, or would the new rats gang up on Elphi because they will have already bonded. Or if anyone heres of someone wanting to rehome and female rats in the North that would be great!!

Welcome to the forum good luck with finding a friend for your girl <3

xx

When my rat Stella had to be pts, I got a new companion for her sister Blanche. I chose to go with buying one new rat as rats are social critters and need the company of another rat. So I was sure they would bond, and they did. In fact, Blanche gets along better with her new cagemate Dorothy than she did with her late sister Stella! There is a possibility of them ganging up, so I would recommend getting one female rat.

On the flipside, there's a possibility of it not working, so I would recommend a pair so you don't have two lone rats! Also, if they are younger they may well really pester the older girl - so it's better that they have a same age friend to play with.

xx

I'd agree with the above, you're probably best getting 2 new little ones, that way they will have each other if things work out, and if things do work out they can play with each other and will hopefully be less inclined to annoy the oldie because they're not getting enough attention/stimulation.

I had 2 rats and they are almost a year old and i had wanted to get one more to introduce but upon finding the one i wanted she had bonded to another rat so i decided to take them both home, i decided to put them into the new cage on neutral ground and they all got on 100% grooming each other within 5 minutes as if long lost buddies. One of my older females is a very dominant little girl and all the other 3 seemed submissive to her so all was well, thought one of the young ones is not allowing the dominant one to pin her o3o so they just pin each other randomly for a split second and all is well again. So far so good though! neutral ground is a great idea