yamper
New Member
Hello!! I semi-recently adopted three young girl rats, and the rescue had brought two out together, and one (Maple) out with other rats but said they had been socialized together and through the introductory period. So when I brought them home I put them all in one cage, and they seemed to get along very well!!!
As I have been working on socializing them and making them comfortable, the two that were together, have come out of their shell a great deal and are very happy and friendly girls! But my other girl, Maple, is being very aggressive towards them and me as well. I had read previously that if a rat bites you should "eep!" as they do, to let them know it hurts and she has always been the most nibbly, so it was something I was working on with her, but lately if I "eep!" she only bites harder as a response.
She has gotten to the point where she isn't comfortable being taken out of the cage (I haven't forced her) but allows pets in the cage, and I believe she may be in heat due to her stopping completely and arching her private parts towards me if I scratch her butt.
She is aggressive towards her cagemates, not to a horrible extent, but where I have to stop their playfighting that gets too rough on multiple occasions, and I am not sure what to do. I did read that separating them and re-introducing them is an option, so I plan to do that, but any advice on how to help her make progress would be amazing and greatly appreciated, since she seems to be regressing if anything the more I work with her
She's a very shy sweet girl, but as she gets older she seems to be getting meaner, she is a harley rat, so I don't know if it could have something to do with her genetics, but any advice is REALLY appreciated as I want to do as much as I can to make her happy here!
As I have been working on socializing them and making them comfortable, the two that were together, have come out of their shell a great deal and are very happy and friendly girls! But my other girl, Maple, is being very aggressive towards them and me as well. I had read previously that if a rat bites you should "eep!" as they do, to let them know it hurts and she has always been the most nibbly, so it was something I was working on with her, but lately if I "eep!" she only bites harder as a response.
She has gotten to the point where she isn't comfortable being taken out of the cage (I haven't forced her) but allows pets in the cage, and I believe she may be in heat due to her stopping completely and arching her private parts towards me if I scratch her butt.
She is aggressive towards her cagemates, not to a horrible extent, but where I have to stop their playfighting that gets too rough on multiple occasions, and I am not sure what to do. I did read that separating them and re-introducing them is an option, so I plan to do that, but any advice on how to help her make progress would be amazing and greatly appreciated, since she seems to be regressing if anything the more I work with her
She's a very shy sweet girl, but as she gets older she seems to be getting meaner, she is a harley rat, so I don't know if it could have something to do with her genetics, but any advice is REALLY appreciated as I want to do as much as I can to make her happy here!