Broken colony

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Mixalot2009

New Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2019
Messages
0
Location
Clarksville, IN
Hey guys I've posted on and off about the same thing but it was never really a serious issue. Tonight however I had to separate my oldest rat Rocky from the rest of the group. He is about a year older and and over the last 6 months has become the main Target for being picked on. I've recently noticed hair loss and just generally not himself. It was never more than some squeaking from his ears being tugged on or dominant shows from my alpha rat. But it's gotten worse lately and tonight I heard squeaking from the other side of the house and go in to find one the the other rats on top of him while is is upside down. I shooed away the other rat (cocoa) and normally he flips back up but he just layed there upside down. I picked him up and soothed him for a bit and put him back and he just sat there for a while and slowly crawled into the house on the first floor. Well I put together a quick tub with some extra supplies I have and put him in there and the change was almost immediate in his behavior. He started running around and chattering his teeth and generally acted like I haven't seen him in a while. I really worried at this point and thinking I should just keep him separated. He was originally a only rat for the first 6 months of his life and I'm sure he would be fine. Any advice would be great and I will post a picture of the cage to see if there's something I could do to reintegrate him or not.
 
The cage.
 

Attachments

  • 0120201217a.jpg
    0120201217a.jpg
    76.9 KB · Views: 169
  • 0120201217_HDR.jpg
    0120201217_HDR.jpg
    77.3 KB · Views: 197
  • 0120201217.jpg
    0120201217.jpg
    47.1 KB · Views: 151
Can you post pics of the hair loss? It may not be due to the other rats, like you think. Does he have scabs on his shoulders and neck, how old are the other boys? It's really stressful to seperate them, and the teeth chattering may not be due to happiness.
 
How old is he? How old are the other ratties? How many rats do you have?
How long have they lived together?
How long after he was introed to the others did you notice a problem?

If he is older he would likely do better with easily accessible hammocks hung low … btw cages are raised at least several inches off the floor to keep ratties out of drafts (because drafts cause illness)

Mixes are not good for rats, please see the Reference Thread for good info on diet, nutrition, the forbidden foods list etc https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/

Are there a couple of ratties he gets along well with?
He really does need to live with at least 1 or 2 other ratties
 
Last edited:
Also, more toys. Lots of different textures, colors, sizes. Rats need lots of stimulation.

Good eye SQ. I didn't even notice the food until you mentioned it. Water sources too. They need at least one, or two on each big level.

SQ, if I read correctly, the rat in question is about a year Older than the others, and they have been house together at least 6 months. So, I guess depending on age, and body language of the ones doing the attacking, it MAY be hormonal?
 
Yes, rats need at least 2 sources of water in their cage and at least one source of water needs to be a dish that can not be upset.

As Dena said, the rat attacking him may be doing so because he is hormonal and if so, he will need to be neutered if you have access to a good rat vet with the knowledge and experience to safely neuter rats.

I am also wondering about the process you used for introducing the ratties as it may not have been adequate in this case
 
If you are a bully rat, you can try and dissuade him from being too much of a bully. So each time you catch him being a bully, pull him out of the cage and place him in a very small empty cage/travel cage. Keep him in there for no more than 10 minutes. Do this each time he bullies. Eventually, he will relate the separation with bullying and he should calm down. Unless if this is hormone related, he would do better with a neuter.
 
Thank you all for all the replys! I usually do the blocks but the place i usually go to was out of inventory so i had to do that. As for the hair loss, its since all grown back so that why i was convinced it was grooming and he was the only one with any skin or hair conditions but ive posted some old pictures just in case. I will try and crowd their cage a bit more with some more stuff. Any specific ideas that would be good seeing the layout of their cage? and thank you jorats I will try that and see what happens with them.
 

Attachments

  • 1105191657_HDR.jpg
    1105191657_HDR.jpg
    39.6 KB · Views: 153
Back
Top