Scared rat after a fight

2 of my 6 month old boys had a fight this morning, Oliver gave Loki a nasty cut behind one of his front legs. Its the first time theyve done this so i removed Ollie from the cage for 10 minutes but he went after Loki again when i put him in, so i brought him out again for another 10 minutes. Anyway, when Ollie cooled off i thought things would go back to normal, but Loki is still scared of Ollie now and the fight happened 9 hours ago. Ollie has approached him a few times to try and make up, acting very submissive, but Loki SCREAMS and runs away. He wouldnt relax or settle in the cage at all so he's been asleep under a pillow on my bed all day. I put him in the cage at dinner time and he happily sat next to Ollie and Misha to eat some peas but then he seemed to notice Ollie was there and came running back out to my bed. Has anyone had this behaviour before? Ive dealt with fights with previous rats but never had one act like this afterwards, im not sure what to do!

I have one that takes a couple of days to get over things. She runs scared and squeaks.

Sounds like someone needs a neuter. Their hormones are coming in and its possible the fighting will not stop until they get neutered. I have 17 boys right now and have gone through plenty of neuters. The fighting may actually get worse. If your putting them back together and they continue to fight you need to keep them apart until you can neuter the aggressor or both. However, that doesn't mean the other one won't need a neuter too - I'm in that situation now. I neutered my aggressor and now the other one needs one so my 2 boys are still apart.

Keep an eye on the meanie Ollie. Each time he makes a bully move, take him out and put in a time out cage. Be consistent. It might be all that he needs to realize that his behaviour is unacceptable. It will take Loki some time to realize things are ok. But if this gets out of hand, Ollie may need a neuter. Interestingly, I had an Ollie who needed a neuter as well. lol

This was their first fight this morning and Ollie was okay after 2 time outs, will definitely get him neutered though if it continues! Will it be okay to leave Loki in the cage with him even though hes scared? As long as Ollie isnt still bullying? Loki stayed with me all afternoon on the bed, as soon as Ollie came out to play Loki climbed onto my shoulder and still wont go near him, Ollie is showing no signs of aggression at the moment.

I think it's ok to leave Loki in with Ollie. He needs to trust Ollie again. But we need to remember that rats can communicate to each other without us hearing anything so we don't know what signals or messages Ollie is sending to Loki which could keep Loki scared. When I neutered my Ollie, it was because three other rats in the cage were very scared of him even though he never attacked them but once he was neutered, the other three became much more relaxed. But I never gave them a chance to accept and adapt to my Ollie. I was quick to get him done. So it will be interesting to see if the time out cages will calm your Ollie down and if Loki will accept him again.

They were perfectly fine together the night after it happened, a bit of squeaking when i first shut the cage door but when i checked on them in the night Ollie and Loki were cuddled up together fast asleep! I'm keeping an eye out for any similar behaviour from Ollie but hes pretty chilled at the moment, if he does bully again i will give him time outs but if he attacks again hes definitely going in for a neuter, i already got a price from my vet and its not too expensive thankfully.

Oooh, cuddling is awesome!!