Bad Introductions or Potential Aggression

[Adryan]

Hi, I realize the last few posts have also been about rat aggression, but I have been having a hard time finding advice or websites that might be of some assistance. I recently got two new babies to add to my group. My two older boys are about 8-10 months old. Their names are Coffee and Cream. Cream has always been more hyperactive but never really aggressive. He's always gotten along with his brother. I brought in two new babies and waited about two weeks to introduce them, so at this point I'd say there where around 2 months old.

I introduced them in a neutral space first, a bath tub with a towel down. They all seemed to get along pretty well. I then put them all in a carrier and they got along in there too. They had to stay with my brother for a day, so they where in a pretty small (rat manor) cage together and they where all cuddling and doing great together. All until I put them together in the main cage, the one story critter nation. Now Cream will chase the babies and harass them. He does the sideways walks towards them and often pushes them into a corner. He chases them down to beat them up. I've seen him chase his brother during the free roam but he always lets his brother go and seems a lot less aggressive about it.

Overall, I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions. If worst comes to worse, I can probably get him neutered, I just wanna make sure that's the right answer to the problem first. I was thinking that maybe the cage just needs a deep clean and maybe reintroduce them? But I don't know if anyone else has any other suggestions.

 

[jorats]

Before you added them to the main cage, did you scrub down the cage, clean all toys, remove all bedding using fresh clean stuff? If not, I would start over with the intros and finish with a big cage cleaning. If you did do a big cage cleaning, then I would remove all toys, all bedding and clean the cage again and put the rats in there with a pretty bare cage. If you see they are getting along, then start adding bedding and toys, little by little. What we want is to remove all scent from Cream.

 

[JuliaMoacyr]

the best you can do is keep them separate but every day have them together supervised. It might be best to have your older rats go into the babies spaces for a while. He's probably just being territorial of his home and his space. Make sure the rats can always smell each other so they get used to each others scent markings. and scent swap towels and bedding and stuff every day. That way your adults get used to the smell of the babies and their scent marks in their home space. It sounds like cream needs more gradual introductions before he's ready to live with them.