Old rat who's cagemate died; should I get another?

Question

Hi! I have an older rat and her cagemate died a couple months ago. She is like a year or two old and I do not intend to get a rat after she passes. Is it okay if I just let her live out her remaining time alone? Is it worth it to get another rat? I know they like company. I just want her to be happy. If she'd be better off with a cagemate, I'm sure I can find one on craigslist that will be older so she doesn't pass tomorrow and leave me with years to take care of a young cagemate. I just want my s***s to be happy.

Answer 1

It really depends on how old the rat is.  If the rat is only a year old, I'd look at your local shelters to see if there are any adult rats you can adopt (of the same s*x of course).  I wouldn't get a rat from a pet store as it will probably be very young and will die well after your current rat leaving you with the same situation... plus I just don't like buying pets from pet stores.  

Anyways, if you are going to opt for having only one rat make sure to give him lots of TLC.  I have one old rat and we try our best to give him a good life.  We let him out of the cage a few hours a day.  We set up little "obstacles" around the room he can climb in and out of like tunnels (from a hardware store) and cardboard boxes (put a plastic bag at the bottom in case he pees.  Spend lots of time petting him.

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Oh!... one more warning against pet store rats... I went to a shelter a month ago that had like 20 rats.  What happened was some person bought a couple of rats from a pet store who were pregnant when they bought them!  Gesh, what a nightmare.  Anyways, the person woke up to a wonderful surprise of tons of baby rats one morning.  The shelter said it's common for any kind of rodent to be pregnant when bought from pet stores.  :S

Answer 2

no, leave dead body there, dont feed live one, and see if it eats the dead one lol

OF COURSE, IF ITS CAGED, IT SHUD ****** WANT A MATE!!!!

an u want ur s***s to be happy?

use a laxative

lmao

Answer 3

probably it would make sense to leave her be,just pay extra attention to her,if you get another it will just happen again and again,my friend had the same problem and her rat is now alone and just fine just make sure you hold her alot and love her,and also by the time you get her adjusted to another one she will probably be old enough that she wont have long left anyways...it takes a while...

Answer 4

This same thing happened to me. 2 weeks later the other one died from stress because they were best friends. I would recommend getting another one, but if that's not what you want, you need to spend a lot of extra time with her and make sure shes as happy as possible.