My Lovely Rats

It’s Day 27 of the rat introductions and lots of sniffing rat bottoms going on! I’ve been putting the new boys and older rats together every day (the more often you do this the better) on neutral ground (a place neither set of rats normally go). Shy-Shy and Pip have been great big buddies to the baby rats, but Rocky and Stripe have been demonstrating the common signs of aggression: fluffing up their fur, sidling up and kicking with their back feet. I try to separate them before things get out of hand and give them some breathing space away from the newcomers. It is useful to have a plant spray and thick towel to retrieve the aggressive rat, if a fight breaks out, so that you don’t get bitten.

Pip sniffing Dublin

Shy-Shy sniffing Dublin

For information on the stages of ratty introductions I found these sites useful:

http://www.ratz.co.uk/ratintro.html
http://ratguide.com/care/behavior/introducing_rats.php
http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/information/guides.php?subject=introductions

Cuddling up to Shy-Shy for Protection

Stripe sniffing Jinx

Rocky and Jinx

Today my lovely rats are mostly eating salad

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Well, it’s Day 10 of the rat intros. It’s becoming apparent that it’s not going to be as simple as I’d envisaged. Getting two strange rats to get along and play nice is one thing but trying to encourage four big bruiser bucks to be best buddies with two complete strangers is another! I’ve had no problems with Shy-Shy and Pip. Pip is the tolerant kind, he doesn’t like any silliness from the two new boys, and let’s them know by giving them a quick power groom, then it’s all over. Shy-Shy has accepted them as his little brothers (he’s even protective of them). Rocky and Stripe however, are acting slightly freaked out, and continually “fluff up” (their fur stands up on end) until they look like tribbles. They then sidle up to the offending new rat, and kick one of their back legs at him. If I don’t intervene, Rocky begins an all out attack, and looks as if he’s going to take a chunk out of Jinx’s neck. I have had to squirt Rocky with a plant mister, to stop him in his tracks, and scoop him up in a towel. It’s a bit scary! I’ve been putting the aggressive rat into a carrier box for ‘time out’ and then trying again later. Stripe acts in the same way and has had a few time outs too, but he’s seems to just want to create a distance between himself and the new rats. I think Rocky and Stripe are actually more defensive than aggressive. There haven’t been any injuries, and hopefully it will stay that way. I’m going to need an awful lot of patience to succeed in this monumental task!

Shy-Shy nose to nose with Jinx

Rocky checking out ‘the Enemy’ Jinx

Stripe is missing from this collection of photos because he was in the Naughty Box!

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating porridge

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