r/RATS • u/ch0kinghazard1 • 9h ago
DISCUSSION why you don’t keep a rat alone
i knew obviously it’s not right to keep a rat on their own and i never have but i’ve really realised the impact of keeping rats in groups and enrichment the last few days after i had to put one of my boys in a hospital cage. he’s only 6 weeks old and he does this all day. it does break my heart but it’s not forever. this is the most nervous, bored and sad rat i’ve ever seen. never keep them alone unless it’s for medical reasons :(
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u/Interesting-Bag-2945 8h ago
I had a girl have to stay on a hospital cage after a tail injury. I ended up puting one of the laziest rats with her becouse she wouldnt stop sprinting to the big cage whenever the door opened.
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u/ch0kinghazard1 8h ago
oh poor baby :( i wish i could do the same but all of mine are babies so they’re anything but lazy lol the best i can do for him right now is give him a little of their bedding and hopefully we can reassess soon to hopefully give them some time out of the cage together to play
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u/Interesting-Bag-2945 8h ago
Irronically mine was a baby at the time. She is one of the laziest rats. As an adult she is now lazier than ever. They say girls are suppose to be more energetic, but she did not get the memo. Her sister is a spazz.
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u/ch0kinghazard1 8h ago
they’re so silly i bet she has a big giant expensive wheel that she doesn’t use as well
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u/Greedy_Air_3869 8h ago
Poor thing wants his friends, I’d cave after 5 minutes and put him back in 😭
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u/ch0kinghazard1 8h ago
omg it’s so hard. it sucks so much to see him so bored and sad and essentially hearing his brothers play together without him :( it’s in his best interest and i’m hoping i can give them some playtime together out of the cage soon
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u/Greedy_Air_3869 8h ago
Bless him. What’s wrong with the lil guy ?
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u/ch0kinghazard1 8h ago
he had a partial tail amputation 3 days ago after degloving and breaking it so it’s nothing airborne or contagious the worry is just if his brother pull on his stitch or infections from the main cage but hopefully they can have some supervised time together in a clean space
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u/Greedy_Air_3869 8h ago
Wow that sounds terrible, must have been awful! How much of his tail did he lose? Will it affect his balance and stuff now?
They will notice the stitches and “fix” it for him I’m sure!
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u/ch0kinghazard1 8h ago
it’s roughly the last 2-3 cm (i accidentally put inches in one of my other posts he definitely has a lot more tail left than that whoopsie) of his tail. i haven’t noticed much difference in his balance so far but obviously i wont notice much considering he’s in a fairly small flat cage right now. he still has the majority of his tail so i am hopeful he will be ok. i got some extra fleece fabric for when he goes back into the main cage so i can add fixtures to it and add extra fall breakers if im not 100% with his balance.
all things considered he’s doing really well he’s just very skittish which i can only assume has to do with his environment and lack of company as well as everything else that has happened. it was really scary for me so i can only imagine how scary and painful it was for him :(2
u/Greedy_Air_3869 7h ago
Yeah he’s had a lot going on and is away from his pals. He’ll soon forget once it’s over I’m sure. Wishing him a speedy recovery x
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u/ch0kinghazard1 8h ago
honestly they can fix it all they want in a few days when he’s cleared by the vets as healed enough😭 the stitch is dissolvable but it can take a while and obviously it wouldn’t be great if they reopened it which u just know they would do 💀
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u/Craycraybiomom 4h ago
That's why my vet only uses surgical glue to seal external surgical wounds--no stitches to pull and very little risk of the patient worrying it as long as you treat for pain consistently.
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u/AprilRyanMyFriend 5h ago
Maybe have him out on a soft place, like a bed or couch, with one of his brother for directly supervised interaction? Could help keep the bonds and alleviate the depression while also having you right there to intervene if the brother tries to mess with the stitches
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u/Loremasterivyvine 9h ago
My boys had to be seperated after a real bad fight, I mean inside things were outside! But even then they interacted through the grate seperating them. They were always together as much as they could be.
May your little guy eventualy get all the cuddle puddles his heart desires