ReepacheepTheRat
Member
I have a bit of a weird dynamic where in a few short weeks my rat colony has gone from having four rats to having two rats living together and one sick rat in a separate cage.
Essentially, I now have the most submissive rat, Illyria, with the most aggressive female, Fred, of the pack housed together and my dynamic having suddenly shifted is starting to cause some tension and a dynamic that once worked is frankly not. I'm suddenly finding scratches on Illyria from fights that I've never seen before. Now to give some background:
Essentially, I now have the most submissive rat, Illyria, with the most aggressive female, Fred, of the pack housed together and my dynamic having suddenly shifted is starting to cause some tension and a dynamic that once worked is frankly not. I'm suddenly finding scratches on Illyria from fights that I've never seen before. Now to give some background:
- Fred is rescue rat with a difficult past. Fred's sister, Cordy, developed various tumors about a year ago that impacted her health and caused Cordy's hormones to spiral out of control resulting in aggression towards other rats and people. Ultimately Cordy needed to be put down shortly after I got the pair of sisters. I'm a little worried this is what is happening with Fred but Fred doesn't have any lumps and bumps on her .When I first got Fred she was dealing with some cage aggression whenever I would put my hand more than six inches into the cage and fear of humans but we have since worked through that and gotten to her sensitive side. She's been able to come out of the cage to cuddle and let me reach my hand into the cage to clean out the literbox for a while now. Fred is unspayed and about 3-4 years old now.
- I've had Illyria since she was little (I think 8 weeks) and she's a very friendly rat just a little shy. Illyria suffered with anorexia during puberty as her sister stole all her food and Illyria basically started to be afraid that if she tried to eat she'd get "beaten up" by her sister. We typically feed Illyria on her own a few times a week which helped her to gain weight and overcome her fear of food in the cage. Illyria's always been a really submissive rat. Illyria is spayed since the age of 1 and is currently 2 1/2 years old.
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