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SQ

SQ

Senior Member - Vegan for the animals
Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
17,208
Location
central New Brunswick Canada
Christmas is still a lone boy .... but in a few weeks I am going to try to intro him to a baby, once the baby is big enough.
Chris really wants to be with other rats but reacts violently where he thinks other rats are challenging him as he is afraid.
I am hoping that a baby who will accept his authority and not challenge him will work out ok.
I wanted to intro in two babies but haven't been able to find 2 baby rescues of the same sex around here and couldn't find anyone to help rescue babies in NS.

Anyway here are a few pictures of Christmas ...

March26HiChristmas_zps0fdd2fa0.jpg


Christmas exploring the playpen before the two groups moved in for their intro

March26Christmasexploring_zpsa79fba1e.jpg


March26Christmasintheplaypen_zpsfdcffe8f.jpg


March28Christmasintheplaypen_zps3dbd86d4.jpg
 
Christmas checking out his temporary cage-in-progress in the living room next to the playpen
.... couldn't leave him all by himself in the rat room.

March28Christmascheckingoutthecage_zps658a333c.jpg


March28Christmasgrooming_zps4fae7f94.jpg


Christmas grooming

March28Christmasenjoyingthecozyboat_zps7db82bb5.jpg


Snuggling in the cozy boat hammock
 
I would be terrified to introduce him to a baby...It is hard to believe that with all the rats you have there is not one he could get along with. Not doubting he doesn't just saying it is very strange....
 
Have you thought about a female for him?
I too would be very worried about him and a baby with how unpredictable he is. You know him best of course, are you sure he's ready for baby craziness?
 
jorats said:
Have you thought about a female for him?
I too would be very worried about him and a baby with how unpredictable he is. You know him best of course, are you sure he's ready for baby craziness?
Click to expand...


Yeah I was thinking a female to...but I think (sorry if I have this wrong) SQ tried him with a female and he attacked her....I think it was Petite Grisse
 
Yes but that was a year ago, and he has become much more passive. I think he was sniffing her and she became defensive and he got frightened and tried to kill her.
He does ok with Easter in my lap, but I do not feel right seperating her from her kids. No way would her adult sons and daughter blindly accept Chris as alpha.
My other rats are not passive and would challenge him, causing him to react aggressively.

He did ok on my lap with Teagan, but she was godmother's rat whom I was fostering and she left.
I was hoping that older babies could be introed and spend supervised time with him daily ... maybe even live with him someday ...

I had been thinking two older baby girls .... but that has not been possible.
I would try to intro him to one or two older, gentle girls but I do not know any ... Easter is the only one I have that would blindly accept him - the remainder would try to power groom him etc and that would not go well.

thank you for your comments. I will think about this some more.
I am suposed to have a baby boy and baby girl being held for me - trying to buy them time to find homes ... they were going for snake food and no one else would take either of them. I have them listed in the rescue section ...
Was thinking if they do not find homes, of trying them with Chris, but it wil be awhile before they are large enough for my vet to fix.
 
Chris is very curious about the other rats, hanging out near the bars of his cage that are closest to them, climbing their cage, wanting to sniff them ...
He parallel plays with Easter, and grooms her a bit too hard when they are together on my lap.
I think she is a bit afraid of him ... she is a passsive, timid girl and lives with her 5 adult children. They are all now 1 year old.
 
dspch911 said:
Maybe he only wants human friends - is that possible? He is a handsome boy though :heart:
Click to expand...

Common sense would say no, but I honestly did have a rat, years ago, that really disliked all other animals. That was one of the reasons she came to live with us. And she spent two years very happy for our company, but she had been very uncomfortable with all of the cagemates she had been tried with.

Of course, she had some slight mental handicaps and was blind. She was an odd case.
 
He looks exactly like our Leroy! Leroy has some issues too but he loves his naked boys now. I hope you're able to find a friend for him!
 
Thanks ... today Christmas is sleeping and laying on the side of the cage closest to the playpen with the other rats.
They have come up to the bars of his cage ... all puffy and curious .... Christmas trys to get close to them and he does not show any signs of aggression ... of course he hasn't shown signs of aggression in the past when he has bitten me or tried to kill other rats - that is what makes it so frightening.

Christmas has been barbering himself off and on for awhile ....
He is blind in one eye - likely an injury before he came to me, and the lumps in his tail show old injuries as well.
Soon after I got him, Christmas self injured his ear and chewed off one of his toes that had been hurt.
But this sweet neutered boy has settled down in the last year and needs friends ...
 
I am sure there must be a friend out there for him somewhere....I wish I still had Prue and Phoebe They were two rats who got along with everyone...they just seemed to know what to do to cause other rats to like them. I used to used them to intro to rats...they could even meet rats they had never seen/smell before and make friends with them right away...they were real gems. I am sure you will find the right friends for him sooner or later....Good luck
 
mamarat said:
Good luck with Christmas. I've been lucky, all my aggressive loners have accepted little harems of spayed girls.
Click to expand...

Even if the girls try to power groom them?
Storm and her mother Esther were on my lap with Christmas a few months ago and Storm decided to be assertive and tried to power groom Christmas ... he didn't try to kill her (huge improvement given his history) but was unhappy ... I put my hand between them and was bitten (but not bad like in the past and he didn't chew after biting so huge improvement!).

How old were the girls when you added them?
 
One boy I got 4 baby girls about 2 mos old, he was around 2.
The other boy around 18 mos got 7girls from 24 to 14 mos and the grumpiest got 2 babies 2 mos and one about a year old.
 

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