# Mixing Rats Questions



## pippainnit (Feb 20, 2009)

Sorry if this is a rather naive (and stupid!) question, but I've heard (and read) conflicting things about it and wanted to check:

Can dumbo rats live alongside fancy rats?

I've got two fancy rats at the moment in this enclosure:










(ignore the pic of Maud in it - unfortunately she died a month ago and I now have two 4 month old females living in it.) 
It's approximately 4.5" x 3" and I was hoping to rescue a couple more females to live in there with my others.

Firstly - I've been made aware of two young dumbo females that need a home so was wondering whether they'd potentially live alongside fancies?

Secondly - do people think that that sized enclosure is sufficient for four rats when they are adult sized? 

Thanks in advance and sorry if these questions are a bit stupid - I've had loads of rats over the years but am by no means an expert in this kind of thing!


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## LisaLQ (Jan 29, 2009)

Dumbo rats ARE fancy rats, just their ears are in a different position.

Edited to add: I would consider a different cage, as that wooden bit wont last long with girls IME!


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## pippainnit (Feb 20, 2009)

The cage has been changed since that pic was taken - sorry should have written it when I posted the pic. The shelves are all plastic ones (safe for animals, obv.) and the wooden bits inside have been covered so they can't be nibbled at.
There's also nowhere near as much paper shreddings in there as that was taken on a particularly cold night last year!

As for the dumbo rats - that's what I thought (that they were just a different type of fancy rat) but I'd heard all kinds of things from people saying that because they display different characteristics then it's not advised to mix them with fancy rats. This was also reaffirmed by a veterinary nurse, which I thought was very questionable. Surely that's like saying you couldn't have different breeds of dogs in the same house.

Thanks for the help


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## LisaLQ (Jan 29, 2009)

The vet nurse should be sacked as she's clearly lacking intelligence, and if she didnt know that, imagine how naff she'd be with the important things if your pet was ill :gasp: :lol2:

They aren't even different "breeds", just varieties of the same one. It's like saying black rats cant mingle with agouti ones.

Edited to add (again sorry LOL): I would still consider an all metal cage if poss. Something like a Critter 3 - not too expensive, plenty of room (not that your wooden one is small, just girls will eat out of it).


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## lyn22 (May 5, 2010)

Silly veterinary nurse :whip: I thought you're cage looked quite good from the rats point of view & if they cant chew through & escape it looks like it would provide plenty of excercise for them up & down all that levels. 
the only problem you might have is introducing 2 new ones to the 2 you already have, sometimes this goes ok sometimes not. Maybe wont be such a problem since they are female & quite young.

Good luck


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## pippainnit (Feb 20, 2009)

Thank you all, yeah well the two I've currently got (Monyet and Nimh) were introduced to my existing rat Maud after my other rat Mig died. So they've been used to being around other rats over the months and are incredibly docile and friendly. Just I figured that if I've got the space and the time to rescue one or two more then I should go with it and the only thing I wasn't sure of was whether the cage size was adequate and the whole dumbo/fancy mixing thing.


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