Hi all,
So we have two female rats (just turning 4 months) and we are first time rat owners. We have had our babies for 2.5 months now and they are not from the same litter but grew up together. Everything was fine with them for a long while, but now they are growing up and one of them (Tofu) is getting pretty dominant. She is shoving Ciske (the non-dominant one) aside and grabbing food from her, out of her paws even. She is also fighting her (not drawing blood as of yet) where Ciske was first just squeeking a little bit, but now also screams and fear poops when this happens. On top of this Ciske has a middle ear infection, so she is not completely healthy (she is being treated with antibiotics and is eating and drinking normally). I've read before that exerting dominance is relatively normal and you shouldn't intervene. But I'm a bit concerned because today I saw Tofu also keeping Ciske out of their sleeping place (sputnik). In the end she let ciske in, and there are plenty of other places she can sleep (hammocks and other houses in the large cage we have) but both sleep almost always in the sputnik. I am not sure if I should be worried or not. Also both are not neutered yet. (Something we still want to do but the veterinary costs for the ear infection is a bit much now (with many visits and different antibiotics) so we want to spread these costs out)
I hope you can help and thank you in advance for any tips you can give.
Nynke
So we have two female rats (just turning 4 months) and we are first time rat owners. We have had our babies for 2.5 months now and they are not from the same litter but grew up together. Everything was fine with them for a long while, but now they are growing up and one of them (Tofu) is getting pretty dominant. She is shoving Ciske (the non-dominant one) aside and grabbing food from her, out of her paws even. She is also fighting her (not drawing blood as of yet) where Ciske was first just squeeking a little bit, but now also screams and fear poops when this happens. On top of this Ciske has a middle ear infection, so she is not completely healthy (she is being treated with antibiotics and is eating and drinking normally). I've read before that exerting dominance is relatively normal and you shouldn't intervene. But I'm a bit concerned because today I saw Tofu also keeping Ciske out of their sleeping place (sputnik). In the end she let ciske in, and there are plenty of other places she can sleep (hammocks and other houses in the large cage we have) but both sleep almost always in the sputnik. I am not sure if I should be worried or not. Also both are not neutered yet. (Something we still want to do but the veterinary costs for the ear infection is a bit much now (with many visits and different antibiotics) so we want to spread these costs out)
I hope you can help and thank you in advance for any tips you can give.
Nynke
