Can't find replacement for a deceased cagemate

[Fenriwolfe]

Hi all, my boys cagemate recently passed and my husband and I have been looking to add new babies to our family to help our boy not feel lonely. The issues suddenly all our pet stores no longer sell fancy rats and we can't find any local breeders or rescues.

My question is (as a novice rat dad) can we get feeder rats or will they prove to have more problems?

I just can't bare to see my boy sitting in his hammock sad all day.

Any help would be great.

 

[ReepacheepTheRat]

I have two rat sisters at two and a half years that were originally rescued from being feeders. They are generally healthier than pet store rats at first but later in life do tend to suffer from problems. One of my girls just had a stroke and the other has chronic respiratory issues (and had surgery at a year old for a tiny mammary tumor and a late spay). If you do get feeders I would really stress spaying/neutering young to prevent issues.

Really for most of my rats I have just made a day of it and driven a few hours or more to a breeder. Otherwise I've tried to incorporate getting rats into upcoming vacations, I got one of my rats on a roadtrip through Canada and another one while camping in a national park for the weekend. Others I've just driven to my neighboring state Pennsylvania to get from a rescue (I am in Ohio so it is roughly a three hour drive there for me and three hours back). It does take more effort at first but they are healthier from breeders. If you wanted an older rat you could maybe even ask the breeder if they have any retiring breeding rats.