Im a new full time rat mom and i need some help

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OceanEyes117

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2008
Messages
220
Location
California
My boyfriend and I have two rats. He brought home the first one, Nut, in August and we got a new bigger cage over Christmas and got her a friend, Luna, in January. They have been living at his place, and were "his" rats. When we brought Luna home we did intros and things seemed to be going ok. Nut ignored her a bit but they seemed to be getting along ok. As Luna got bigger though Nut was not happy about her being there. Luna would chase her all the time and try to lick her bottom and try to crawl under her and groom her all the time. Luna also seems pretty small for her age and Nut would always steal her food and stash it and we were worried that Luna wasn't getting enough to eat. Nut is well socialized, loves getting scritches and play time with us but Luna is very skittish still. She just wants to follow Nut around and harass her. We jokingly call her our little lesbian rat.
We were worried about Nut being a bully and that Luna was getting enough food so about a month ago we decided to separate them and keep them in separate cages. So now Luna is staying with me. I read somewhere on here that Ensure is good to help underweight rats get some weight, so I got some and have been giving her some, and she loves it. I use a dropper to squirt it into my hand and she licks it up, but Im not sure how much to give her, or if there are other things I should do to make she shes healthy. Also I have been trying to bond with her and get her more comfortable with me and with people in general. I have tried putting her in my lap and sitting in a chair so she cant wander off, as well as putting my hand in her cage and petting her when she will let me. What else can I do to make her a less skittish rat and more playful rat.
I was also wondering about getting her spayed and what behavior changes that might cause, and whether it would make her less fixated on Nut's lady parts. I need to figure out if we can get Nut and Luna to get along happily or if I should get a bigger cage and a new friend for Luna. I know I have tons of questions, and I apologize for the lengthy post, but I didnt want to leave out any important info and I want to make sure I am doing the right thing for my little one.
 
Yeah, it sounds like they may be going through a little hormonal stage. Spaying may definately help with that.

Ensure is good for underweight rats, but I wouldn't feed it too often as it is sugary, but you can try just giving her treats and feeding her normally should allow her to gain weight back. For socializing her, I like to do "forced" socialization, where you keep her with you for at least 20 minutes. It could be on your lap, on your shoulder, wherever, as long as you have contact with her.
 
Yeah, I agree, when she's out spend more time with her, give her more treats when she's out on your lap so she can get used to you, but don't feed her things in her cage through the bars, she could get bitey.

Also Keep giving her the sugery stuff, that will help.

I'm not an expert but I do like to help and that's just my opinion.
So you could try. :? I'm not that sure but you could try it, couldn't you?

Well I hope that will help. :hugs:
 
Ensure will work to help gain weight, as well as baby cereal with olive oil.
Getting her back with Luna is key! Rats need other rats to be happy, comfortable and secure.
The down the shirt trick usually works for socializing. (put your rat in between two shirts and leave her there for over an hour at a time.

No sugar...ever. sugar is very very bad for rats.
 
Ok. Good to hear that the ensure is ok for my little Luna. I will keep working on the socializing and the trust, and I will try that shirt idea, sounds like a winner. I'm still not sure what to do about her and Nut though. Do you think it would be worth the stress on Luna to spay her and try to re intro her with Nut and hope Nut doesn't bully her anymore and hope that Luna stops harassing Nut? Or should I just give up and get a bigger cage and a new friend for Luna?
 
I use ferret-vite for underweight rats. They like it and it helps them bulk up, unless they're really old, then it helps them to sustain. I don't give it to healthy rats though.

Somebody tell me if it's bad for them please. I only use it for really sickly rats.

Yeah definitely between two shirts, unless you want footprints all over your torso (like I always seem to have). Thanks for that tip. Too late to save me but some others can benefit. Plus I'm highly ticklish anyway so I consider it therapy :roll:

:whip self smilie:
 
OceanEyes117 said:
Ok. Good to hear that the ensure is ok for my little Luna. I will keep working on the socializing and the trust, and I will try that shirt idea, sounds like a winner. I'm still not sure what to do about her and Nut though. Do you think it would be worth the stress on Luna to spay her and try to re intro her with Nut and hope Nut doesn't bully her anymore and hope that Luna stops harassing Nut? Or should I just give up and get a bigger cage and a new friend for Luna?
Click to expand...

I would try to re-introduce them. If you get a larger cage anyway, put the less aggressive rat into the cage they will eventually be in. Put the aggressive rat in the other cage and have the cages close enough for then to have physical contact. Leave them like that and after a few days you'll notice that they sleep near each other and seem to want to be together. That's when they are acclimated to each other. In the meantime, have playtime together with you, a couple of short sessions a day.

Put them together in the bigger cage a few times and convince yourself it's only a trial each time, and when they are ready to be together, you'll know.

Standing contests and power grooming are normal behaviours, don't mistake these for fights. Real fights have a lot of screaming, and the bad ones have puncture wounds
 

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