So, i have a lone girl unfortunately right now, her sister unexpectedly passed away a few days ago. I would like to get her more buddies, but i'm worried about the amount of time youre supposed to quarantine new rats from your current ones. There's a shelter nearby with 2 that i would love to try to grab tomorrow if theyre still there, do i really need to wait 2-3 weeks to even let them into my house?? My mom is willing to take them for a while but i also hate to miss that bonding time with them too, i cant really split myself going to a different town every day after work.
This has always baffled me as a guideline people are expected to follow because many people dont have someone else that can house their rats?
Are the contagious sicknesses that rats have still as prevalent as they used to be? I havent seen anything online about them more recent than 2015, but i didnt look long. I live in ohio for reference. I just hate to think that she has to be alone for that much extra time, if i'm not able to get the two tomorrow, i do have another small group i would like to adopt from someone i've been talking to, but in that case i wont be able to pick them up until next weekend because it's a super long trip, so thats even longer of a waiting time before intros can start.
(For the record, i was planning on getting more rats next month after some major life stuff blew over, specifically to avoid this type of situation, but they were just over a year old so it was super unexpected for this to happen already...)
Tldr: do i really need to quarantine new rats in a completely different house for 2 or 3 weeks? Would even 1 week be enough? I dont want my girl to be lonely for that long.
This has always baffled me as a guideline people are expected to follow because many people dont have someone else that can house their rats?
Are the contagious sicknesses that rats have still as prevalent as they used to be? I havent seen anything online about them more recent than 2015, but i didnt look long. I live in ohio for reference. I just hate to think that she has to be alone for that much extra time, if i'm not able to get the two tomorrow, i do have another small group i would like to adopt from someone i've been talking to, but in that case i wont be able to pick them up until next weekend because it's a super long trip, so thats even longer of a waiting time before intros can start.
(For the record, i was planning on getting more rats next month after some major life stuff blew over, specifically to avoid this type of situation, but they were just over a year old so it was super unexpected for this to happen already...)
Tldr: do i really need to quarantine new rats in a completely different house for 2 or 3 weeks? Would even 1 week be enough? I dont want my girl to be lonely for that long.
