u/SELF-lSH

I have two male, 7 month old rats and I’m getting two baby rats soon, they’re 1,5 month old and 2 months old (20 days age difference), is this age difference okay? The breeder said they’re introduced, they’re kept in the same room and acted calm with each other when they took them out to show me. Although one of them is very energetic and curious and the other one tried to burrow in the bedding and sat in the corner since there were a lot of even younger babies running around and causing chaos, which he tried to avoid. Is this personality difference okay? I just thought that they’re a lot like my current rats, does this even matter? It’s my first time getting rats from a normal breeder and going through introductions, my current rats unfortunately came from a not very decent place but were already bonded.

And upon researching the carrier method I realized that you’re supposed to have different sized carriers at each stage, I can’t find the carriers I could’ve used for this, but I have a lot of plastic boxes of different sizes. Can I use them if I remove the lid/put wire over the boxes? Can I use my current rats’ carrier for intros if I deep clean it? It’s 30 cm long, 23 cm wide and 21 cm tall.

From how far away will rats be able to smell each other? I don’t have a spare room I can quarantine the new rats in and the biggest distance that can be in between the cages is 10 meters, around 5 if I put the new rats in my room and keep the door closed (although I still leave and come into my room a lot). If they will be 10 m apart, the best I could do is put up a curtain.

I was supposed to get the savic royal suite 95 cage, but the situation has been compromised and I probably will only be able to get it in 2 months. The cage my rats are currently in isn’t as big. Would connecting their cage and the cage the new rats will first be quarantined in after the introductions be a good or a bad idea?

I’m getting new rats soon, but the breeder is located far away from me and I don’t have a car, so I can only use the subway. The trains are really quiet though, still more noisy than a car but they don’t make any particularly hellish sounds. It is crowded in there, but it won’t be a long ride. The rats will be in a carrier and an open bag, is this okay? I transported my current rats this way and they were chill with it. If it’s really bad or unsafe for the rats I can try to get my parents to drive me. (They’re super busy all the time so I’m usually trying to avoid bothering them)