I have a bit of a morbid question for you, but it’s regarding an issue I never see mentioned on rat info websites, so I do hope you can help me. I was wondering what you should do when a pet rat dies: whether you should allow the cage mates some time alone with the body, or whether it should be removed straight away. When my first pet died, she was in my arms and out of the cage. I didn’t know what to do for best so packed her away immediately. However, I got the impression that her cage mate just didn’t know what had gone on and was a bit frantic when her sister disappeared. I feel as though I should have allowed her to see the body, but I’m not sure if this would cause distress. What do YOU do in this situation?
This is actually a REALLY good question. Thank you so much for bringing it up!! I think it is important. In my experience, rats cope a lot better when they can see the body. I’ve had several sets of siblings. With two sets (Pitter & Patter and Lukass & Rizzo), I had to put one of the rats to sleep and I didn’t put the body back in the cage. It seemed as if the remaining sibling was looking around the cage for its mate. Eventually, he or she would come to terms with the fact that the mate wasn’t going to come back, but it was kind of a long process. On the other hand, I had another rat die in the cage unexpectedly. It seemed to me that when Piglet died, Roxy (her cagemate) understood what had happened.
Based on these experiences, I think it’s better if cagemates can see the deceased rat’s body, so they understand that their friend has passed away. If I were to take a rat to get euthanized again, I would put the body back in the cage so the other cagemates could examine it. It might be difficult for me, but I think it would really help the surviving rat(s). Thanks for asking this. It is a little morbid, but it’s a fact of life.
Hi Sara- here’s my dilemma:
I have an adult female rat, Amelie (a loveable friendly girl!) and i just got her a partner- a young female named Lilly. At the moment, they still live in separate cages (they’re not quite the best of friends, but I’m still in the midst of introducing them). Well, all seems well except that Amelie, my older rat, has had some recent behavioral changes within the past 3 days. She no longer wants to stay in her cage (for any length of time) and will jump at the cage door over and over again, smashing her face into the door until I let her out on my bed. At first, I thought that she was upset that she wasn’t with her new companion, but she did the same thing when i put them together. I don’t want to reward her bad behavoir by letting her out of the cage all the time but i don’t want her to hurt herself! What should I do?!
Thanks for helping me!
How odd! I haven’t heard of anything quite like this before–but I’ll ask around, and I’ll post it on the FAQ to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. Usually when rats are frantic, they have a good reason. For example, my pet rat Whiskers had a litter of rats when I was very young. Right before she gave birth, she started acting a little nuts, and was licking me like crazy. I put her back in the cage, and five minutes later she started giving birth–she was acting so frantic because she was about to have a litter of babies and needed to get back in her cage! I’m not suggesting that your rat is pregnant, of course. She might just be feeling insecure and want some attention because her living situation has changed.
Good evening, my fellow rat lovers! Hope all is well with you and yours. 
I’ve started a page called “Rat-Related Products” in an attempt to help spread the news about everyone’s best loved rat products, both for your rat and for yourselves. I’ve listed some of my favorites, but please leave your input if you feel I’ve left out anything you love!
Hey all!! FRC’s got a new Flickr group, where we can all share photos of our beloved pet rats! Check it out!
As you can see over on the right, we’ve got a new FRC group over at Flickr. The new web address is http://www.flickr.com/groups/frc/. In addition to adding your own photos to the group pool, we can start discussions–for example, I think it would be great if we could share tips for photographing rats (I mean, lets face it–they aren’t that easy to get on camera!). In order to post, you’ll have to start a flickr account…but it’s completely free and totally awesome. So join in on the fun!
I’m also going to start up FRC’s gallery again. In the last website move everything pretty much got lost (although I do have a lot of the photos previously sent in, which I will add to it), so if you have any photos you’d like to submit, send them to questions@fatratcentral.com. The picture I’ve posted here is also in the group pool. I had this rat, Pitsy, when I was in high school.
Hey guys! I’ve been having some problems receiving emails…hopefully this is a server problem that will be fixed soon.  So if I haven’t responded to your question, this is probably why. In somewhat related news, I’m going to be back in California for a little over a week starting Friday, so I won’t be able to check my email while I’m gone. If you’ve got a pressing issue, contact your vet. Otherwise, I’ll get to it when I return. Hope you’re all doing well, and thanks for visiting Fat Rat Central!
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