Hi
I'm having trouble with an introduction and hope you have advice about what I should do.
I have a male rat who's 1.4 years old
His buddy passed away and I got him two 5 week old babies last Saturday.
I introduced them on the bed and my male acted very friendly with them but they were terrified of him and especially one of them would stand with an open mouth ready to bite everytime my older boy came close.
I decided not to move them into the big cage that day. Instead the next day I did intros in the carrier where they were forced to be close and this helped a lot with the little ones being afraid. They got more and more relaxed around my boy.
Then we moved on to the bed again but then my male started being really dominant and would bite into the skin of the little ones and drag them over to him and act very dominantly so I felt I had to stop it before it escalated. There's been no blood drawn.
I then started the carrier intros again and started putting my male into the little ones' cage as well and there were no issues. Then I tried the bed again and this time no problems.
A few days later I tried putting the little ones into my big boy's cage but he got very territorial and would chase them and stand over their hiding places where they sat scared and ready to bite if they had to.
(I had cleaned the cage and all houses and hammocks before putting them all in)
So since then I've had them out on the bed and had my big boy sleep in the little ones' cage with them the last two nights as well. No issues.
But whenever I put them in the big cage my big boy gets territorial. During the day where he sleeps there might not be anything but at night when he wakes up he'll run after the little ones and stand over their hiding places and they will run off and hide immediately. They've learned by now that when they're in his cage they have to be careful but when they're on the bed or in their own cage they can trust him and they happily sleep next to him or try to get him to play with them.
I'm not sure what to do to make it work in the cage and make my big boy accept that they're there. There's been a few times where he's went into a space pod the little ones were in where he just kind of moved around in there dominantly and then went out again but I don't fully trust he won't hurt them if he gets his hands on them, he's always had a very dominant personality and there's been a few incidents in the cage where he did the bite and pull thing to them.
Will he eventually give up chasing them in the cage? Or does he have to get it out of his system by capturing them and dominating them? Because right now they're way too fast for him.
Any advice is appreciated.
I'm having trouble with an introduction and hope you have advice about what I should do.
I have a male rat who's 1.4 years old
His buddy passed away and I got him two 5 week old babies last Saturday.
I introduced them on the bed and my male acted very friendly with them but they were terrified of him and especially one of them would stand with an open mouth ready to bite everytime my older boy came close.
I decided not to move them into the big cage that day. Instead the next day I did intros in the carrier where they were forced to be close and this helped a lot with the little ones being afraid. They got more and more relaxed around my boy.
Then we moved on to the bed again but then my male started being really dominant and would bite into the skin of the little ones and drag them over to him and act very dominantly so I felt I had to stop it before it escalated. There's been no blood drawn.
I then started the carrier intros again and started putting my male into the little ones' cage as well and there were no issues. Then I tried the bed again and this time no problems.
A few days later I tried putting the little ones into my big boy's cage but he got very territorial and would chase them and stand over their hiding places where they sat scared and ready to bite if they had to.
(I had cleaned the cage and all houses and hammocks before putting them all in)
So since then I've had them out on the bed and had my big boy sleep in the little ones' cage with them the last two nights as well. No issues.
But whenever I put them in the big cage my big boy gets territorial. During the day where he sleeps there might not be anything but at night when he wakes up he'll run after the little ones and stand over their hiding places and they will run off and hide immediately. They've learned by now that when they're in his cage they have to be careful but when they're on the bed or in their own cage they can trust him and they happily sleep next to him or try to get him to play with them.
I'm not sure what to do to make it work in the cage and make my big boy accept that they're there. There's been a few times where he's went into a space pod the little ones were in where he just kind of moved around in there dominantly and then went out again but I don't fully trust he won't hurt them if he gets his hands on them, he's always had a very dominant personality and there's been a few incidents in the cage where he did the bite and pull thing to them.
Will he eventually give up chasing them in the cage? Or does he have to get it out of his system by capturing them and dominating them? Because right now they're way too fast for him.
Any advice is appreciated.