Older rats in a different cage?

[lindsayfawn]

I was wondering what everyone does when their rats start to get older? Do you keep them in the same cage as the others or put them in their own retirement cage? The reason I am asking is because of Leia. She's gone through a lot with the surgery and isn't bouncing back very well. She looks very old and I suppose she is at 2 yrs old. She fell off the cube in the cage today. She seemed to be fine but a little stunned from the fall.
She's very slow moving around the Triple FN so I was wondering if maybe we should have her in another cage? Though I don't think she'd be happy in another cage..I dunno what do you guys think?

 

[rat.charmer]

I put my older rats in a 'retirement' cage with no shelves and nothing they can get caught on etc. They just can't compete with the younger ones in the FN and I'm actually afraid of them falling off the shelves and hammocks. Also going with them was their 'caretaker', a middle age rat who grooms them - they always slept together so I couldn't bear splitting them up.

 

[NezumiNeko]

Personally, I think she'd be happier with her buddies, just put extra shelves and ramps in for easy access to everything.

 

[Debbie]

We have always eventually moved our elderlies into a one level cage. With our last group, we had 9.....and 3 of the boys were starting have back leg weakness. My largest one level cage only holds up to 5 comfortably. So we ended up taking 2 cages and putting large doors in the sides and attaching them. We literally had one HUGE, one level cage that was 5 feet long and 2 feet deep. It was fleece lined, so the boys could pull themselves around in comfort, but we also hung hammocks and things for the more agile ratties to still have things to climb on and not get board.

Everyone was happy and still together!

Here's what the cage looked like:

We have just 4 of this group left now :sad3: and they live in just one of these two cages.

I did have a large group of rats at different ages a few years ago. It was really hard to split them up, but I put the more laid back and older rats in with the elderlies, in a one level cage. I still brought them all out for play time, so the younger ones still saw their friends. When the elderly ratties passed on...the younger ratties move back with their other pals.

I've learned the hard way, that you don't want to wait too long before moving elderly ratties out of a cage with lots of ramps. I had a girl slip, get her foot caught, and took one heck of a bite, to get her free. Thankfully she was ok (though it took me two weeks for my finger to heal up. :wink: ). I had another roll down the ramp and thankfully land on the fleece...but it could have been so much worse!

 

[twitch]

i like to try to keep all of them together in the main cage as long as i can. but when it starts to get difficult for them to climb i've started to put them in the martin's with the ramps. if they have hind end weakness or if that cage ends up getting difficult for them then i move them to a one level (which, until i can find something better, is a hagen double long rabbit cage). and they always have a buddy with them. with stew it was his shadows, with violet, right now its serraphim but depending on how serra's surgery today and her recovery goes violet will probably have a rotation of her old pals to come spend a day or two with her.

 

[jorats]

I too try and keep my rats with their buddies for as long as I can. I rarely pull them out and give them their own cage unless it's quite clear they are in distress. What will cause the least amount of stress to your girl... that's what is important right now.

 

[mamarat]

That cage looks great Debbie. But I try to keep them with their buddies as long as they can. I did separate two older ladies recently because Henry was clearly depressed living with them after having 7 leave. I've introed him to two younger fellows and Henry is happy again.

 

[lindsayfawn]

well we do make sure to keep everything as low as possible in the FN and try to keep as many things around hammocks and so on so she can get in them and out of them. But she is slow going up the stairs. So is Willow...but willow has never been right the first day I got her. She can't jump at all and has a hard time climbing on anything...we'll have to watch them this week and then make up our minds...sucks watching them get so old in such a short time