New Rat. Playing or fighting?

So I purchased a rat from my local petstore, a little Berkshire colored baby who was very small. Quarantine is over. So I placed the boys in a clean cage and watched. One boy, Moose, doesn't really care. It's Malcolm and the new baby, who I named Monty, who 'played'. Let me just start by saying Monty is half the size of my other two boys, with Moose being the biggest. Monty would get excited, pounce on Malcolm, and then Malcolm would roll over onto his back and let Monty do his thing. Every once in a while Malcolm would groom Monty between the shoulders, and Monty would close his eyes until he was done. This would happen over and over again throughout the course of 30min. There was some squeaking, but very brief and not very loud when they were 'playing'. Tomorrow I will let them play some more. What do you guys think? I've done some research on social behaviors but I'm still unsure. Is this something I should be concerned about? :thankyou:

You should never never never never never never never introduce rats in a cage ever.
It should be in an open, neutral territory, such as a bathtub or tabletop. I will leave the rest of the advice to the pros, but please do not ever put rats who have not been properly introduced into a closed cage again.

They had been in the bathtub before this, for about 45min, and they just smelled each other. I should have mentioned that. Then I let them on the floor in a neutral territory. And today I cleaned the cage well and put them in.

That's a relief! I don't know enough to advise you, I'm sure someone who does (like jorats) can help you though. Is the picture recent? Your new boy sure looks young! It's advised the babies be at least 10 weeks old before meeting adults, as they can be fatally wounded within seconds when they are too young to defend themselves.
Since he came from a pet store, I'm sure you don't know his exact age, but if that photo is very recent... he looks less than 10 weeks in it.

Anyway, I'm not the pro so I'm not sure.

Yeah haha! I should have said that before! I wish I knew his age, he is very small. Poor thing. I just couldn't leave him there...my mother was less than pleased, but now she loves him
He fits in my hand, barely, but he does. I will measure him tomorrow. He is sleeping :hug4:

Aw, well he is very cute. I don't know much about measurements, but I have seen quite a few pictures and am thinking he is still very young!

I'm gonna message Jo and ask her to come advise you, she is very good. In the meantime, you might consider waiting to do the next intrk or doing your next intro outside of a cage if you don't hear from her by then (better safe than sorry!)

Velo said:

Aw, well he is very cute. I don't know much about measurements, but I have seen quite a few pictures and am thinking he is still very young!

I'm gonna message Jo and ask her to come advise you, she is very good. In the meantime, you might consider waiting to do the next intrk or doing your next intro outside of a cage if you don't hear from her by then (better safe than sorry!)

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Sure thing
I thought it was okay to do since they had been fine in the tub and in neutral territory. Thanks!

As I mentioned, I am definitely not one of the experts at all but the further info will help them more!

Best of luck to you!

Having just had an introduction oopsie myself with my older girls and little ceci who is only 7 1/2 weeks old now what you are describing sounds nothing like what I was experiencing but like Velo said I am not an expert either. My boys do something very similar with each other and I always just chalked it up to boys being boys and the few times they have had disagreements it literally looked like a boxing match and funny enough my oldest,biggest boy is named moose also I hope that the wiser ratty owners can help you figure out what it going on with your boys cause I know all to well the stress not being sure what is going on.

Your little sweetie looks to be about 2 months old.
The fact that Malcolm allows Monty to pin him is a good sign. I think when Malcolm grooms his back, it's ok. Especially since Monty allows it and just sits there.
I prefer intros to last at least a week before they move in together. Keep a close eye on Moose. If he hasn't gone near Monty yet, he might still. How old are Malcolm and Moose?

Malcolm is 6-7 months and Moose is 6-8 months. All pet store rescues so I don't know for sure. So when will I know it's 100% okay to leave them together? Today the same behavior happened. Moose still seems to not care about Monty at all.

Your big boys are at the age to become hormonal and territorial so I would be very careful.
This is usually my process: intro on neutral ground with nothing in the area, sessions are an hour long and this last for 3 to 4 days. If all goes well, I move the intro sessions on familiar ground, an area that all the rats have played before, their usual out time area. I do that for 3 to 4 days and if all goes well there, I scrub down the cage, move things around to make it unrecognizable and then move them in together. I watch them for 24 hours, if all goes well, I consider it a done deal.

jorats said:

Your big boys are at the age to become hormonal and territorial so I would be very careful.
This is usually my process: intro on neutral ground with nothing in the area, sessions are an hour long and this last for 3 to 4 days. If all goes well, I move the intro sessions on familiar ground, an area that all the rats have played before, their usual out time area. I do that for 3 to 4 days and if all goes well there, I scrub down the cage, move things around to make it unrecognizable and then move them in together. I watch them for 24 hours, if all goes well, I consider it a done deal.

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Sounds good. Thanks so much! :urock:

Good luck and keep us posted.

I have horrible news. Monty was put down today. Now please, before I say what happened, know that if you knew me, euthanasia is always something I don't do unless I HAVE to. It is a last resort. Now with that being said, he had been fine. He had been okay until today. He was gasping for air, had porphyrin all over his little face, and just looked bad. I rushed him to my exotics vet. My vet looked over him and told me that he has a very bad respiratory infection and had only ~10% chance of making it. He was suffering, so I made the choice. I don't know how the hell all this happened overnight, when I checked his lungs just yesterday and they were clear. I am so sad and hurt that this had to happen. I loved him so much. He was just suffering so bad and there was nothing I could do. The vet gave him an oral euthanasia and he fell asleep and then passed. I am not looking to get another rat anytime soon but you never know.. R.I.P my little Monty, I love you so much..:cry3: :sad-p:

I am really sorry for your loss.
It sounds like it could have been a burst pulmonary abscess. Rats can get abscesses in their lungs and sometimes they go undetected and when it burst, it fills the lungs up and the rat can't breath. You did the right thing.

Oh no how sad. ): I'm very sorry for your loss!

Thank you guys, I was hoping I made the right decision, it was bothering me all night.
Poor guy was so young though... :/