What to Do when a Pet Rat Dies

Losing a beloved pet is never easy and if your pet lived in a large cage with cage-mates, they are more than likely going to miss him when he’s gone. Whether your pet rat dies at home or at a vet’s office, there are necessary decisions you’ll have to make.

What To Do If Your Pet Dies At Home
If your pet rat passes away at home, it’s sometimes easier because you can hold and comfort him in his last minutes. Afterwards you can cuddle with him until you feel it’s time to find him a box for burial. If he had cage-mates, it’s also a good idea to take your deceased pet over to his cage and let the other rats sniff him, so they know he’s passed away.

Rats are smart animals and oftentimes if a cage-mate just disappears from the cage one day, they will run around looking for him, wondering what happened to him. If their cage-mate passes away in the cage, they probably have already gone over to him, sniffed him and know he’s died.

One of my rats passed away late last night and his three brother’s cuddled with him while he was in the cage and as I took him out for the last time, one of his brother’s came over and sniffed him. It’s like he knew he was really sick and he was saying goodbye.

What To Do If Your Pet Rat Dies At A Veterinarian’s Office?
If you take your pet in to have him euthanized you can still bring his body home so you can bury him yourself. If you do that it’s a good idea to let his cage-mates see and sniff his body so they know he’s died.

Rats are very smart animals and if a cage-mate dies in the cage with them, they will sometimes try to get rid of the dead body in the only way they know how, by eating it. Not all rodents will do this, but it does show they understand when one of their cage-mates has passed on.

What To Do With The Body?
There are mobile pet services for cremation that will come and pick up your pet and deliver the box of ashes back to you. You can also clip a small lock of hair to place in memorial jewelry before having your pet cremated.

If you plan on burying your pet like I do, you’ll need a box big enough for your animal and a place to bury him. I always use duct tape around the entire box so other animals don’t smell the box and try to dig it up.

If you cannot bury the body or have a cremation service pick up the body right away you will need to preserve the body in such a way that it does not decompose until you are ready to have it picked up or bury it. To do this you will need to wrap your pet in a sheet or blanket and then place him into a plastic bag. Try to get as much air out of the bag as possible and tie it securely. Then you can place the bag into a refrigerator if you will only be waiting a day or less, or into the freezer if you need to wait more than a day. This will keep your pet’s body from decomposing in the meantime.

I realize this isn’t something you want to think about, but it is something that pet owner’s should know.

Sources:
http://dogs.about.com/od/petloss/f/What-Should-I-Do-If-My-Dog-Dies-At-Home.htm

Reference:

• www.animalcremationservices.com/
• www.memorialgallerypets.com/pet-cremation-jewelry.aspx