A 3 year old girl + a 6 month old girl...

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psycho_ash

Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Messages
7
Location
Rural Pennsylvania
Hello, all! My name is Ash - I have two little ratgirls, Lemmi and Felony.

I've had Lemmi for a year - I believe that she is two and a half to three years old. She's a rescue rattie, so I don't really know how old she is. She has lived alone since she ever came home from the pet store, and truly considers herself to be "human".

ilovethiscracker.jpg

This is Lemmi.

In any case, college leaves me with less time to spend with Lemmi. She doesn't like being alone, so I got her a friend - Felony. I quarantined Felony for a week, in a different cage, before putting their cages beside each other. They seemed to get along quite well, both while sniffing each other between cages and during play time. At the worst, Lemmi seemed to find Fel simply an annoyance. There was no puffing up, no hissing, no squeaking while they were together. Fel did try to play with Lemmi, but Lemmi wasn't too interested.

felisruns.jpg

Fel is a bat out of hell.

After them living beside each other for three weeks, today I decided to try the last step - moving them in together. I completely cleaned the cage they were going to live in (Lemmi's), removing it of all scent. I put new bedding in it, I put in a new house, a new food crock, new toys - everything. I then smeared some yogurt on both of them and put them in. They licked each other for a bit, and then started exploring. They had a few scuffles, but nothing major.

Then Lemmi decided to go for the food, and Fel tried to join her. Lemmi didn't attack Fel or anything, but she started squeaking A LOT. I've never heard Lemmi squeak outside of me trimming her nails and going a little too far before. Everytime Fel tried to approach Lemmi (who was eating), Lemmi would about-face and squeak. I didn't want Lemmi to rip Fel's face off, so I separated them.

Here is my question - what do you think I should do? Do you think they could live together, or has Lemmi been an "only rat" for too long?

Thank you very, very much,
Ash
 
Well, did you do bathtub intros?

I am currently in the process of introducing my male rat Leonard, who's about 2 1/2 to 3 years old as well, to Sheldon, who's an adolescent.

We've put them in the tub twice and things are already doing better.


However, I am new at this stuff so my advice probably isn't that good.
 
Sounds like you skipped a couple of steps in the intro process.

After they have been in nearby cages, you need to:
1. do intros in a neutral area ... many people use the bathtub with plug in and a blanket on the bottim. A dish of food that can not be carried away such as baby cereal or yogurt is a good distraction. Duration is usually 20 minutes or longer. After this has occured several times without problems
2. do intros in a nonneutral area such as the play area. Again with food and for at least 20 min. When several intros have been completed without incident
3. clean out a cage, rearrange it and add the rats. Make sure it is at a time when you can keep an eye on them for 8 to 12 hours or longer.
 
The squeaking when eating is perfectly normal. Some rats are super sensitive when they have food with them and they like to whine very loudly.
Is that the only concern with them is the squeaking when eating? If so, put them back together, they should be fine.
Also, is the cage big enough for two rats?
 
SQ said:
Sounds like you skipped a couple of steps in the intro process.

After they have been in nearby cages, you need to:
1. do intros in a neutral area ... many people use the bathtub with plug in and a blanket on the bottim. A dish of food that can not be carried away such as baby cereal or yogurt is a good distraction. Duration is usually 20 minutes or longer. After this has occured several times without problems
2. do intros in a nonneutral area such as the play area. Again with food and for at least 20 min. When several intros have been completed without incident
3. clean out a cage, rearrange it and add the rats. Make sure it is at a time when you can keep an eye on them for 8 to 12 hours or longer.
Click to expand...

I did do all of that, I just didn't include it because I thought my post was already too long. Their first intro to each other was in a very large rubbermaid tub with a (clean) towel in the bottom. They did fine with that for a half-hour duration, twice. They never showed any aggression towards each other. The second intro was in their play area, and they did really well. I gave them special treats and they ate together fine. Fel tried really hard to play with Lemmi, and I think Lemmi started to get into it a bit.

I did clean out the cage entirely and rearranged it - I even made them new things for it (house, food crock, etc).

jorats said:
The squeaking when eating is perfectly normal. Some rats are super sensitive when they have food with them and they like to whine very loudly.
Is that the only concern with them is the squeaking when eating? If so, put them back together, they should be fine.
Also, is the cage big enough for two rats?
Click to expand...

The only concern is the squeaking - Lemmi didn't puff or hiss or lash out at all, she just got very VERY irritated when Fel tried to sniff what she was eating. I didn't want Lemmi to really hurt Fel, so I took Fel out.

The cage is 1' x 3', with a 1' x .5' platform, plus they both traipse on top of their house which is also 1' x .5' - it's a total of 4 square feet altogether.

Rabbitcage.jpg

This is what their cage looks like, minus platforms.
 
If you can try adding another level...
But they should be just fine together. Your Lemmi will always be a squeaking eater, which is no big deal...
 
Brynnalyn said:
ClownCarOnFire said:
I am currently in the process of introducing my male rat Leonard, who's about 2 1/2 to 3 years old as well, to Sheldon, who's an adolescent.
Click to expand...

I think you're missing Howard, Rajesh, and Penny.... (Names from Big Bang Theory??) posting.php?mode=quote&f=21&p=201449#
It made me laugh.
Click to expand...


I am working on getting three more sometime, haha. If not for the parentals, I'd have them already. ;)
 
So I put them together again, and something very odd has happened.

Lemmi (the older girl) is not the aggressor at all - Felony is! Felony has rolled Lemmi on her back once and generally just aggressively grooms her and bats at her. The surprise, to me, is that Lemmi hasn't tried to fight back AT ALL, which is weird. I thought she'd rip Fel's face off, or atleast put her in her place, but... whatever.

In any case, Lemmi goes very still whenever Fel approaches her and acts very submissive. How can you tell if a rat is full out "bullying" another rat? I got Fel to be a companion for Lemmi, not to beat Lemmi up.

In any case, thank you again.

<3
 
Update (and probably last one)

So today I got back from class and hung around my room for awhile - about two hours - until I noticed something - Felony's cage door was open! Naturally, I started to freak out. I looked in her cage first, then started looking around my room, hoping I wouldn't find her squished somewhere or... worse... loose in the building (I live in apartments).

As I was digging around the room looking for Fel, I noticed Lemmi in her cage and... something else moving.

Yeah, it's what you're guessing. Felony was in Lemmi's cage.

So I guess they *DO* want to live together... I'll just let them be, then. If Felony felt so strongly about it that she needed to PUSH HER DOOR OPEN (which is difficult for *me* to open) and wiggle her way through the bars of Lemmi's cage, then so be it.
 

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