Integrating Rats

[Egg and Dak]

On this last Halloween we purchased two young rats, brothers who we named Wirt and Finn, sadly these boys were sold to us very young and Wirt had suffered for it. We believe he had meningitis, or something similar, and he passed after just under two weeks. We realized he was unwell very early and separated the boys, fearing Wirt might be contagious. Sadly this left our last boy, Finni, to be alone and he has been ever since his brother passed.
But we were worried for him and quickly acted on adopting him some new companions in hopes that they would take relatively quickly to one another. Which is how Tofu (One Year) and Taro (Nine Months), a bonded pair, came into our lives, who are both very sweet boys, but much to our chagrin these boys do not get along in the slightest. We have done what we found on the internet and other rat blogs and whatnot. We have kept their cages close but not too close to one another, switched little chewables between them, and done brief introductions. This has had mixed results, Taro and Finn seem to get along for a brief time before they wrestle a little much and worry us. Tofu is another story, the last time we tried to introduce Finn and Tofu, Tofu attacked Finn to the point where he was bleeding in a few places. Since this occurrence we haven't really tried again due to fear that something worse may happen.
We were wondering if we could any other opinions on how to move forward with this. We do believe it may have something to do with age as Finni is still technically a juvenile. While simply having the Big Boys around has vastly improved Finn's behaviour we simply just don't want him to be alone anymore. He does constantly watch his older brothers and we really would like them to get along. Any tips would be greatly appreciated as we are still basically beginners. Thanks!

 

[Dena]

I don't know if you've checked it out yet, but www.joinrats.com has some great info on this, as does the reference thread on here. It may help to get finni a buddy that's closer to his age for now. He may just be a little too rambunctious for the other two. He will calm down closer to a year (usually). Also for future reference, it's not generally recommend to seperate cagemates when sick or hurt. The stress is pretty detrimental to some. If finni's brother was contagious, you'd have known pretty quickly, and it wouldn't have done any good to seperate them anyway, unless they are in totally seperate air spaces (like on their own filter, and air from each can't mix). Sorry if that didn't make much sense. It's late, and I'm tired. LOL

Also, for future reference, www.ratguide.com is a great site for medical stuff.

Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your babies!

 

[SQ]

How old is Finn?
If he is young and active he may be irritating older rats and need a playmate near his own age

Please see introducing new rats in the Reference Thread https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/reference-thread-read-only.35894/
Aggression in rats is almost always hormonal and when all else fails, they require a neuter by a good rat vet with the knowledge and experience to neuter rats safely. (Please see the Reference Thread re neutering rats)

As Dena mentioned, rats are rarely if ever separated as it causes stress which can make rats ill.

Good luck with the intros and please don't hesitate to ask questions after reading the links in the reference thread (including joinrats.com)