Quarantine:

When to do it and how to do it effectively to protect your rats.

You may have heard someone in the rat community mention quarantine before and asked yourself: “why is that important?”. There a variety of answers for this question that we will go into thoroughly on this page.

Firstly, what is quarantine? In this scenario, quarantine is the act of separating the pre-existing rats and the new rats in a separate room from each other, with all vents closed to prevent air flow from entering the room of the pre-existing rats. Some pathogens are air-borne and will infect rats despite having no contact. Quarantine is practiced when you are bringing new rats into the residence, whether temporarily or permanently. This should be done regardless if you are a rescue, pet owner, or breeder.

Secondly, what is the purpose of quarantine? The purpose is to protect the health of all rats involved. While our rats have tested negative for RBF and other zoonotic illnesses (with the exception of mycoplasma), they can still get sick and pass that on to other rats in the home whether it is via air-borne, physical contact, or transferred from you to the rats after handling the “suspect” rats. It is for this reason that it is recommended to wash your hands and change clothes prior to holding and interacting with both sets of rats. The rats in quarantine should be dealt with last so the risk of transfer of pathogens is decreased.

How long does a rat have to be in quarantine? Can they be alone? Rats need to be in quarantine for a minimum of 2 weeks, preferably 6 if you can manage. 6 weeks is recommended to fully rule out Sendai virus and other various life-threatening illnesses that take a while for symptoms to present themselves. If you bring home a solo rat, the quarantine practice is still the same procedure. They will be fine for 2-6 weeks on their own as it will not be a permanent placement.

If your rat starts to exhibit symptoms of illness during the quarantine period, they will need to be brought to the vet for an official diagnosis and treatment plan. After getting the all-clear from the vet, you may then proceed to introduce with the pre-existing rats in your residence.