Mini's Rescued Feeder Breeder pair, may need advice

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So I gave Stewie an epson salts bath tonight, and he sorta slipped and went right in the water LOL, so afterwards I just looked at him and said "man you look like a drowned rat!" :roll:

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Then he decided he forgave me when I took him back out to wrap him in his towel to dry him off and snuggle him, so forgiving that he would go to sleep on me, after checking out my face a few times:

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So not that I am complaining, but why does he keep sniffing my face/mouth/nose area? I like to think of it as kisses, but I don't know for sure.....

And Kimmy tonight made me a very happy froggie!! I put some food on my hand, and she licked it off!! She was almost dainty compared to the other girls lol, but I was expecting at least some teeth, all I got was tongue, it was very exciting!! The other girls were fighting over my finger and trying to grab it with their hands and teeth to pull me in LOL! She is starting to trust me I think, she is taking food from me, after sniffing my hand of course (but she no longer bites me right away, she did nip at me the second time I picked her up yesterday, I guess I pushed my luck lol, but only yelled at me when I did it today) She seems to really love her veggies, lol, so tonight I gave them Hayden's supper plate when he was done, since of course he left most of his peas, with a bit of other veggies, typical child eh? :giggle: They did not mind one bit :heart:

Tomorrow I will try and get some new pictures of Kimmy, I just realized that it has been a while LOL
 
Rats smell other rats mouths when they eat stuff. It is how they know what they had. If it smells good then they will search out the goodies or try to steal it from them. My rats do it constantly some wanna see what I have been eating or drinking.
 
Yes sadly. I have boys who wont come near me unless i have food when they see I dont have anything, they walk away lol
 
Ya my boy Gyro and Nes do that to me, but they both lick my hands all the time daily so i can live without their kisses. A real kiss to me is when they litterally, walk up to your face, grab it and lick lick lick lol. My Gizmo does that to me, he's the only one that likes to climb up on my shoulder, making the effort, just to lick my cheeks hehe
 
MiniFrog said:
So not that I am complaining, but why does he keep sniffing my face/mouth/nose area? I like to think of it as kisses, but I don't know for sure.....
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It's also how they know the food is safe to eat. It is a survival mechanism. You ate the food and you are still OK, so the food must be OK too.
 
So I got them both out of the cage, they ran to the temp cage that I have up top, and it is very hard to get Kimmy's photo, but here are some pictures I promised lol:

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Stewie:
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I am petting her head:
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She is cleaning herself:
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Thanks guys! I have no idea how these rats get into the positions they get into LOL!!

I tried to get a video of Kimmy eating peas off my finger but could not get the camera in a position that you could see it and still feed her where she was in the cage lol
 
Well I would 4th my beloved Stewie but that would be a little overkill. :giggle:

The mouth sniffing is a good thing. They accept you as another rat in a way. He trusts you to advise him on what is good to eta...likely you are his alph :D

With that neuter abscess,I would sitz bath him, get that scab softened off and start flushing. I wouldn't just leave it just in case there's pus/bacteria trapped underneath that could make it recur. Abscesses are not fun, but if taken care of properly (twice daily flushing with saline and a medicating syringe) they heal quickly and easily.

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Wow just look at the change in stewie, from his first picture he was dirty and had filthy fur, to now, he's a handsome healthy boy and his kimmy is a doll! Congrads! :D
 
So Stewie's black spot is no longer black:

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It looks a lot worse in the picture for some reason.....

And kimmy has started being very timid again and nipping at me :( I have a very busy work week coming up, so I am thinking of starting intros next weekend when I have more time to focus on them, but if she is biting at me, will she bite at the other girls? Will she feel over whelmed and feel that she needs to go on the defensive?

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I love Kimmys little face lol, and just had to share that as it is still very hard to get a photo of her. I think she is a very beautiful girl, but what rattymom wouldn't say that about her rats eh? (or any mom about their kids for that matter LOL)
 
She's going through the hormones im sure, probably the reason why she's nippin a bit. My boys got used to me at one point then a few days later a couple of them got all skittish and edgy when i held them or tried to pet them. Even Gizmo did that to me and he's the most open of my rats. But after a few days they settled down and things got back to order. I bet she's still going through the phases. As for worrying about if she bites your other girls...well sadly intros is the only way to find out what she will do. If she gets aggressive with the girls in a netural zone day one, then ya you'll probably have to take it even slower with it. But you never know till you give it a try at the end of the day, least this is my opinion. Im sure others could give you more solid advice, good luck on your intros!
 
I don't think Kimmy's nipping at you will reflect on what she will do with rats.
Have you started exchanging bedding/toys etc yet? That way they can really get used to each others' scents without physical contact. I know that their cages have been next to each other, but it's not the same.
I'm glad Stewie's scab has come off. Does it seem like a hole? or just tissue?
 
Intros to socialized rats are the easiest way to socialize new rats :) Just because she's unsure of you, it doesn't mean she will have issues with other rats.
 
Ok, so a few days ago I gave them each a paper bag (just like a certain someone else on here lol) and they loved it, the girls would go in there to eat the good food (at first when it still looked like a bag) to hide from the others, the married couple really didn't bother with theirs, at least not at first. I would notice that sometimes the one in the girls' cage would end up standing up as though (I am assuming Honey) would pull it up to the next shelf, in attempts to get it into the hammock, like everything else, but for the most part it remained on the middle full level of the RUUD. This morning I took your advice and chose the bags to switch, because if they were going to attack this new scent, I figured there would be no harm done, the married couple had theirs in their igloo. When I woke up (after placing them each near but not exactly where I got them from) the married couple had theirs back in the igloo, and the girls had theirs on the very top shelf, with Alice curled up on it, along with some fleece scraps from the bottom level! So I switched their igloos as well. That is a good idea and now I cannot wait until I have the time to start intros!!
 
That's great! Keep switching stuff every day, so that they become very familiar with each other's scents. It just makes it that much easier when they finally get to meet face-to-face.
 

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