What Exactly happens During Quarentine?

[lilshorti22]

Well I might be getting a pew girl soon. What do you have to do when adding a new rat to the already 2 i have?

Is quarentine just putting them in a seperate cage for a while?? so confused.  It would be nice to have all the details on how to properly quarentine a new ratty...

Dont get me wrong, im not clueless on how to introduce or anything on ratties.  But I've never had to quarentine so I never worried what there was to do.  Sorry if im not making sense.  

 Thankyou for any replys.

 Its not sure yet that im getting a new rat.  But *crosses fingers*  lets hope the parents say yes!!!

[Apopli]

To quarentine, the rats would need to be in two seperate homes. The rat being quarentined would have to be in an animal free home for 3 weeks. Unless, of course, the rat is coming from a home with no other animals and the rat has had no contact with other animals for at least 3 weeks.

Quarentine is done to prevent viruses such as SDA from spreading into your colony. Incubation of the viruses suggest that 3 weeks is the ample time to keep an eye on it. If nothing comes up in 3 weeks, you can bring the rat home.

If you plan on "quarentining" in your home, the purpose is defeated. If they share the same air, airborn viruses can be transmitted.

[Noe]

A proper quarentine lasts at least three weeks, and involves making sure there is no cross-contamination between rats. This means that your new rat would have to be kept in a separate airspace, preferably a separate building, and you would have to change your clothes and shower or at least wash your hands before handling your current rats.

[Dani]

New rat(s) should be quarentined in totaly seperate air space(like a different house) for atleast 2 weeks but 3 weeks being even better because that is about how long it takes for some illnesses to show up. You should change you clothing and take a shower after you tend to the rat(s) that are being QT'ed so that you don't bring anything in on your body/clothing. Quarentine can be a pain but it's what any responsible rat owner would do. BTW, most people have neighbors or friends that don't have rats quarentine them for them.

[lilshorti22]

Would it count as quarentine if the rat was kept with its brothers and sisters for 5 weeks?


Also another question.  When i got my first two girls i didnt know much about rats or quarentine which was about 1 yr 6 months ago.  And i got them from a petstore. Wouldnt them being in a petstore with tons of other animals ask for a quarentine?

  thanks again

[Dani]

At your house or the breeder's?

[lilshorti22]

breeders

[Dani]

I would still do Quarentine then.

[lilshorti22]

ok, Do you think it would be okay if the breeder did the quarentine for me?  or would that not work?

[deniseratlover]

Mmm. Now, if the breeder did it, if it was in the same house and all, then it would still have a chance of getting all of the stuff. If the rats have sneezes, it could get sneezes. You see what I mean?

[BabyBlue]

The problem as I see it doing quarantine at the breeders is that sometimes breeders' colony can catch something from the people who comes to see/pick up the rats. Unless you can ask the breeder to completely shut down her rattery for 3 weeks and don't have anyone over who has rats at home, it won't be possible.

Same thing with petstores. The main thing with breeders/petstores/rescues or whatever, is that there will always be new animals coming in, people coming to see the animals who might have sick rats at home, etc.

[Lone Star Rats]

"Quarantine" is a tricky thing... really a breeder is almost never in "full" quarantine if they are breeding.. it means no new litters born or unweaned litters for 3 weeks.

I wouldn't trust a breeder in "full" quarantine not to potentially still have something floating around.  It's always a risk, no matter what.

[lilshorti22]

Ok thankyou to everyone for the replys, now all i have to do is find someone to quarentine for me... this is going to be a task.

Once again Im not positive in getting the new rat. But if i do quarentine is going to be tough.

Now i wouldnt do this.. but what would happen if quarentine didnt happen?  

[Dani]

No quarentine= possibly sick rats
Doing quarentine= you can notice and stop a virus (if the new rat happens to have one) and keep your other rats safe.

[SR&P]

is it okay if the rats are on separate floors. my house has two stories. would it be okee dokey if the new rats were upstairs & the others downstairs with the shower & change clothes addition?

[scout]

It depends on the ventilation system. In general, no, because air from upstairs and downstairs will mix.

That said, I happen to know that in my building (a 4 unit condo), air from next door doesn't leak into my unit. The neighbors are chain smokers and I'm the only unit that doesn't get the smell. But just to be on the safe side, always quarantine where you don't have shared air. Even a quarantine in the garage has caused problems for some rat owners.