Keeping solitary rats---unexpected rescue, aggression

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Grey_Whiskers

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
75
Location
Montreal, Quebec
Hi folks,

I'm back to keeping ratties for the first time in a while and rather unexpectedly.

Normally I'm always one to keep ratties at least in pairs, but got a 'Grey, you take her or she's being killed today' call and luckily I still had most of my old supplies handy.

A friend of mine works at a pet shop and apparently they had one of the rats get out and go on a four day killing spree before being able to catch her. 10 dead/eaten hamsters and they said she had injured some of the other rats in the cage as well. She'd also bitten some of the employees.

The manager was very angry and essentially this girl was going to be killed today for reptile food. She was not getting any second chances...and I'm a softie. So here we are again. Cute little girl, about 3-4 months old---an agouti dumbo. She hasn't been aggressive towards me, just very shy, so that's a start.

She's alone now and might have to stay that way, at least in the interim. I'm trying to make that as tolerable as possible for her, I just hope she comes around soon so at least if she can never be housed with other rats again she won't be so lonely.

Thoughts/ideas to make the solitary life as good as I can for her? I know it's not ideal, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do for her.
 
Goodness me that was quite the story!

I'd say make sure she has plenty of extra toys and at least 4 hrs daily of outside of the cage opportunity. Kudos for taking her on!
 
Thanks Sheldon.

I've got her a couple chews and am going tomorrow to pick up some shelves and more places for her to hang out/relax (not as many supplies remaining in my closet as I thought...but she's warm and safe for now).

Four hours a day isn't a problem, just gotta work on getting her not to be terrified of me. She'll come up to sniff treats if I hold them and does seem a little curious before she runs and hides.
 
Hammocks, boxes, tubes, paper towels etc for nest building, a lot of good food and variety, at least 2 sources of water at least one being a dish that can not be upset. Large cage if possible since she has had an entire store to roam in. She might like a small stuffed toy to snuggle with - or not - Christmas chewed his apart within a day or so.
She may just be terrified of people (understandable) and may have been engaging in normal rat behaviours - attacking unfamiliar rats and killing prey (hamsters)

Keep her in a room where you spend a lot of time, and talk to her, etc so she will get used to you
Here are some ideas re trust training http://www.joinrats.com/EarnTrust

Once she feels safe, gradual intros might be possible with the right rats.
I had a rescue boy (Christmas) who liked people but repeatedly attacked and tried to kill other rats (Blood all over a cage and the room at the SPCA - his brother managed to escape the cage and survied, attacked one of my elderly rats and tried to kill her by biting her spine), ........ a neuter and a long period of time and very careful slow intros and about year later he was happily living with and 'mothering' 4 young rats (he didn't feel threatened by them) in a double CN (so he had a lot of personal space).
Presently I have a rescue boy, Quinn, who was terrified of people (they dumped him into a box as the people were too frightened of him to pick him up as they said he was very aggressive and attacked them) and other rats are terrified of him. - Actually Quinn was terrified of people and extremely aggressive toward other rats (but didn't try to kill them). I got him in early December and last night he actually climbed onto my lap when out playing (He likes to get out and run around and play but does not like being held or petted). Quinn was recently neutered and is presently being introed to a group of 6 spayed girls.

Glad she has you.
Welcome back :)
Good luck ... I am sure she will come around
 
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Had a small incident with the lil girl today where I was trying to get her out of the cage so I could set it up properly and she panicked and got loose and we had to catch her. My old apartment was super 'no-small holes for her to get into the walls rat-proof', my new place not so much so we had to be a bit more direct in trying to catch her than I would have liked.

Bad news: poor thing is (understandably) more frightened of me now.
Good news: I definitely don't think she has any neuro problems at all, she moves correctly and is very agile. She also didn't bite anyone today when we had to catch her/hold her, just squeaked and peed and pooped :( so I don't think she's aggressive just super scared.

I have to say though I've worked with unsocialized rats from the feeder bin who weren't this scared, so she surprised me.
I'm thinking about trying to find her a well-socialized/confident companion sometime this week and start some intros. The last girl I had who was nervous like her only really started coming around when she was introduced to a bold companion who wasn't afraid of me and so taught her not to be scared.

For sure her attacking and eating the hamsters was completely natural predatory behaviour, but it meant that the manager thought she had to be killed and disposed of unfortunately. I'm beginning to think she's not nearly as bad as they said and we're dealing with a mostly 'non-rat people not knowing anything about rats' situation...pet stores being what they are.
 
Me too!

I'm a bit conflicted as to where to get her companion.
My apartment is all one big room/open space so doing a true quarantine is impossible.
I'd love to adopt from a shelter or take in a rattie needing a new home from kijiji but I don't have the space for more than two and can't find a young enough or a female. I really do think she's closer to no more than 3 months old.

I'm debating seeing asking that same friend who works at the store if they've got someone else doomed for the feeder bin so at least I can save a life and get a rat from the same environment and likely group so that quarantine issues are minimal.
 
Could she be pregnant? My mom adopted a little girl from Petsmart many years ago. She had to convince them to let her have the rat because she too had gotten loose and attacked their birds and they considered her feral and evil. But that little girl turned out to be the sweetest pet ever. Good luck!
 
Happy news for the little girl :) She now has a same-age friend and intros went very well (I love baby rats for that). Came right out of her shell and seems overjoyed not to be alone anymore. She even came up and nibbled my hand compared to freezing and cowering in her igloo, which is great.

Now the duo just need names and of course, I will post pictures :)
 
Still trying to get those pictures I promise :p

The girls get nervous when I approach/look at them or if I move too quickly so of course by the time the camera focuses they're onto me and Monk will bolt and run.

Surprisingly it's Rogue (the original girl who was running loose in the store) who's coming around more quickly. She's taking (if cautiously) some sunflower seeds, baby food and homemade oil-free baked french fries from my hands and from a spoon quite readily which is great.

Monk was super bold when she was with her group at the store, but has turned into a bit of a scaredy rat right now so she bolts every time she realizes I'm looking at her. But even she's slowly beginning to take food from me, so should come around soon hopefully.

The girls seem to be doing ok, they look like they're breathing fast but then again they're frightened of me so I don't necessarily think it's illness-related as nobody is sneezing etc. Plus as soon as the lights go out and they think I can't see them/they feel safer they get into all sorts of play-fights and shenanigans and are certainly eating/drinking/pooping a lot---just not when I'm awake haha.
 
Ah don't worry, she'll come around.

I think it's funny that rat owners feel the need to describe how the treats they are giving aren't unhealthy in any way. I do it too. [emoji6]
 
I think it's funny that rat owners feel the need to describe how the treats they are giving aren't unhealthy in any way. I do it too. [emoji6]

I do it too but I believe it is important to because so many feed their rats horrible unhealthy things ....... letting others know I feed healthy treats will hopefully let people know that there is an alternative and give them some ideas of good things they can give as treats ...... I get ideas from others and just try to help others by sharing ideas too
 
LOL I do that too... and like SQ, I think I'm trying to convey the importance of nutrition. I used to feed my rats so much junk until my vet told me to just stop it. LOL
 
Yeah, it's sort of an automatic habit by now---I hang out in a lot of parrot forums and ooooh boy it is important to stress you are feeding only the healthiest.

I do agree also that I do it precisely because so many people feed poor diets (sometimes intentionally/'but they like it', sometimes out of ignorance) and I've done so much rescue/rehab work with various critters (reptiles, arachnids, parrots, dogs, cats, rats, hamsters...) that it's pretty automatic now for me to focus on a healthy diet.

I've just seen so much of the damage that comes from improper diet. Premature aging/death, arthritis, obesity, heart issues/strokes, longevity in general, kidney/liver disease etc. It breaks my heart.

I had a lady (who knew me through a mutual friend) tell me I was 'being cruel' to my rats because I watched what they ate, watched their portion sizes and kept them from roaming all over the house.
I watched every. single. one. of the rats she kept become morbidly obese, get sick and die at the age of 18 months from strokes or getting hurt. As well, she refused to get them medical care and I *hate* seeing rats in such profound respiratory distress. It broke my heart.

I've also seen the same thing happen with rats owned by other people who fed them tons of junk.

All of my girls made it to 30 months+ and we have had a good number of them end up having to be put down only because of hind end degeneration. All of them were generic feeder/pet store rats. Nobody has had a stroke. We do get tumours and we've had one PT---but all of these occur over 24 months of age.

Diet is so. so. important I feel.
Especially when ultimately as a human being I can choose to feed myself with whatever junk I like and accept the consequences...the rats can't really consent to any of it.
 
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