Ok so as some of you may know, I am getting 2 5-week-old rats to add to my pack. (a boy and a girl)

I currently have 2 boys and two girls (in two cages).

the girls and one of the boys are 5 months old, the other boy is about a year.

I am pretty sure I won't have to QT them because the guy who is giving them to me only has the babies and the mother and he is making sure they don't have any health problems.

so... what do you guys think of this situation?

would it stress the babies out too much to put them in with my rats? ( I would of course make sure intros went well)

i just need some advice because a girl on another forum said that I should adopt FOUR of the babies (2 of each gender)

but i really can't have 8 rats... i don't have the space... 

You want to make sure you take things slow. I'm in the process of doing this myself. When they're 5 weeks they are really little, especially compared to the adults. Have them play a lot outside of the cage to get used to eachother. When they seem good, put them in the cage together...but not permenatly. I usually put the babies in with the adults for a little bit everynight. I haven't completley put them in because they are still really little and if they get into a fight fight, they can't really stand up for themselves. I'm planning on putting them in completley at about 8 weeks when they're a little bigger. They all get along great though :-)


I'm sure she suggested this because when your older rats die, they wont have any companions. I might be a good idea later down the road when you think the last of your other rats might be at the end, to get another to keep the younger ones company.

It will depend on how everybody gets along, but I tend to think "cautious" rather than slow.
We just intro'd 'Bug to two adults - Smudge is 2 and Angel is almost a year - and they took to each other very well and very quickly.
A week of "cage sniffing", three or four play dates, and a cage scrub.  It's been a week and absolutely no issues.

That said, we kept a very close eye on them the first day or so - prepared to pull 'Bug if there were issues - and made sure 'Bug had an escape place.
I think the older girls may have wanted an escape from the baby at first, but everybody has mellowed into one warm rat pile.