Adopted the one eyed boy (Christmas) - update

[jorats]

Time to molest the little Christmas. lol

 

[mamarat]

Good luck with Christmas. Aww those stubborn men!!

 

[SQ]

Bitten again today .....
Splattered blood from one end of the house to the other as I ran for bandaids
I was not impressed.

 

[Godmother]

He sounds like he's just got a mean streak.

 

[mamarat]

Poor you!

 

[Joanne]

Oh, that just sucks! Do you see them coming at all? Any way to have him out without risking another blood bath?

 

[hopefloats]

Was he neutered? I cannot remember for the life of me if he was?

 

[SQ]

Oh, that just sucks! Do you see them coming at all? Any way to have him out without risking another blood bath?

No, no signs at all.
That time I was bit putting a snack of carrots into his cage ... maybe he doesn't like carrots :roll:
Since then, I have had him out without being bloodshed.

I have also been bitten hard in almost the same spot ...
Star smelled/saw the bandaid when I was putting food into the cage and she bit my finger, hard.
I had forgotten the bandaid :roll: but usually my rats just try to remove bandaids, not chew through my finger.
Guess I'm on a roll here

Edit: yes, Christmas was neutered in early Jan.
He is one of the rats abandoned in 2 bins outside of the SPCA. All boys had injured tails. He was the only boy without a half chewed off, injured tail ... and since he attacked and seriously injured one of the other boys the 1st night at the SPCA, it is suspected that Chris is responsible for all the injuries. Christmas also chewed off one of his own toes (was slightly injured) after he came to live with me.

 

[mamarat]

Does he also bite you outside the cage?

 

[SQ]

Does he also bite you outside the cage?

Yes, both inside and outside the cage but not consistently and no warning.
For example, he could be lying down on me and I could be petting him.
He might suddenly bite me very hard breaking the skin with blood everywhere, he might nip me but not break the skin, or he might enjoy being petted. I just never know ....

 

[mamarat]

That's kind of scary. I never had one like that. (thank God!!)

 

[hopefloats]

I remembered where he was from but I couldn't remeber if he was fixed or not. He is just a mean bugger then. Toby had cage aggression I would give him treats in the cage till he trusted me. Toby was a good guy thoug very easy to break. This guy had it rough.

 

[SQ]

He had stopped biting me and things were going well when I tried to intro him ... and he attacked Petite Grisse.
Chris did not bite me when I pulled him off her, but he started biting me again after that happened.

Sometimes I think he is telling me to go away, or that he is unhappy, other times I think he is letting me know that he is the alpha.
But I could be wrong

 

[SQ]

Christmas is no longer biting me and seems to want the company of other rats.
He has been spending some supervised intro time with Teagan in neutral settings.
He only has one intact eye and needs to siiff her butt every couple of minutes ...... to make sure of who she is I guess.

It was going ok, then they got into it and Teagan was bitten twice on the back
They have been together in my lap a couple of times since then ....
Christmas has even allowed her to pin and groom him but she is unsure of him and his body language gets a bit aggressive if she becomes asserative.

 

[jorats]

He bit her twice on her back? How bad were the bites? Could it have been him wanting to groom her and she tried to pry away?

 

[SQ]

He bit her twice on her back? How bad were the bites? Could it have been him wanting to groom her and she tried to pry away?

Maybe .... I hadn't thought of that,
but he did seem a bit aggressive when he did it ... puffy, pinned her down, etc.
At the time I thought he was trying to dominate her and show her he was boss.
They weren't too deep (like when he tried to kill Petite Grise - according to the vet)
Loss of hair, blood and scabs that healed in a couple of weeks

 

[jorats]

I'd go very slow with the intros. He shouldn't have been that aggressive with her. My parents once did an intro between two males and what worked for them was my dad would never allow one to go near the other, they could sniff and walk close but he would put his hand in between them each time one tried to touch or mount the other. They did this for a week and it actually worked. They never bothered with each other after that. Maybe you could try that with your intros?

 

[SQ]

dbl post

 

[SQ]

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll try that.
Things were fine during intros in my lap so I moved to a neutral cage.
That is where they got into it and Teagan was bitten.
After a break, I have since returned to intros on my lap.
Tense but so far no injuries ... thinking a younger girl might do better as Teagan doesn't necessarily submit to him.

The really frightening thing about Chris is that he can bite fairly deep (bite me anyway) without showing any sign of aggression ... absolutely no warning ....
He hasn't done it for awhile but he just turns his head and sinks his teeth in.
Not so bad when it is me ... just afraid he will do it to someone else ... like another rat .....

 

[*Rebel_Angel*]

Want my Isy to work with after lol,she doesn't seem to get the message that bitting is a no no..I even bit her on the butt lol not hard saying that see it hurts when u bite..sigh well atleast their not hard bites I only bled cause she nipped me on the lip.

I'm glad that u have Christmas now!