Introducing young rats

[metricEee]

I have a female rat who recently lost her cage mate.  I have been watching Daphne for a couple of weeks now, and she doesn't seem to have any signs of illness, so I would like to get her a new friend.  She is about 16 months old, and was the alpha of the old pair.
My questions is this, is there any major problems with introducing a young rat to her?  Is there any advantage/disadvantage to getting two new youngsters?

[scout]

There is an advantage to getting two - if they don't get along with the older rat, they will have each other. You don't wind up with 2 rats all alone. The disadvantage is that three rats take just a little more care than two. But it is such a small difference, and the advantage of a pair far outweighs the disadvantages, IMO. Your girl is not too old to have a new companion. I have successfully introduced new rats to both males and females of this age. It may just take a little longer. And the younger the new rats are, the easier it will be. Here's a good article on introducing new rats:

http://www.ratfanclub.org/newrat.html