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Squishy is my pet rat, he's a male. I got him and his brother Loki at Petco (a horrible environment for them, I saved them from becoming snake food.)

I'm a new rat owner they are my first rats. I've done a lot of research beforehand about rats, I know they are litter mates so keeping them together was fine, and it was fine. Perfect even, but Loki had died from a tumor when I was asleep, I woke up from Squishy shrieking and found him dead. When I felt Loki, he was cold to the touch but I had let Squishy sniff him for a while just in case; after that, we buried Loki in the backyard (We dug a deep hole and I put him in a shoe-box filled with spices like mint, garlic, lavender, and rosemary so it would cover the smell of death so an animal would not unbury him)

It's been a while but I have shown extra care for Squishy, I've given him extra attention and lots of treats, I've also been playing with him a lot but I think it's time I've gotten some new friends for him. I'm going tomorrow to Petco (Not the best choice but I don't want those poor babies to be stuck in a glass cage waiting to be snake food.) with him to see how he will react to new rats.

But I'm a little concerned about how to make them comfortable together and how to make things go smoothly. If someone could give me a few pointers, ideas, or just any information on how to introduce new rats to each other I would really appreciate it!

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  • fyi, Petco doesn't sell live feeder rats, only frozen ones
    – Allison C
    Commented Apr 23, 2023 at 1:24
  • According to their online shop - they sell live rats (but in their local stores) and it doesn't seam that they sell them intentionally as a snake food. Regarding rat introduction there are a lot of places you can find info, for instance: wikihow.com/Introduce-a-New-Pet-Rat-to-Another-Rat + I don't see any reason to take Squishy to the shop while buying a new rat - just an unnecessary stress for him.
    – Picard
    Commented May 10, 2023 at 21:06
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    @Picard Yes, they sell live pet rats. Not feeders. Feeders (as I said) are sold frozen, not live.
    – Allison C
    Commented May 11, 2023 at 13:21
  • I'm sorry @AllisonC I misunderstood you. One more thing Ella, rats from a pet store could be more difficult to introduce than rats from a rat breeder which I would recommend if you can find any, from my experience they are much more friendly towards people and other rats than those from a pet store which are usually stressed because they have to fight with other rats all day for everything like food, places to sleep etc and aren't tamed at all.
    – Picard
    Commented May 12, 2023 at 7:33
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    @DekoRevinio and that's not the responsibility of the store, which will put in place as many policies to prevent that as possible. It absolutely does not mean that they're being sold as feeders, any more than someone giving away a kitten on Facebook means they're giving it away to be used as a feeder or bait animal.
    – Allison C
    Commented May 23, 2023 at 19:48

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Well late as it may be, I'll throw in my few cents. When I introduced Mango who had been alone for about a year to another Rat (call him M2) who had been alone hardly an hour, I just put them together. M2 was way smaller than Mango, Mango initially just didn't know how to react. He kept sniffing M2 and M2 got awkward. Then some wrestling happened, in a few hours they were sleeping together (not in that way, they just like to be touching each other). All in all, think less, just pull the trigger, they'll be fine.

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