Hey all,
My boyfriend and I adopted two new female 14/15 week old rats two weeks ago. Both needed to be introduced to our already present 9 months spayed females. Our new addition to the family are white rats with pink eyes that we rescued from a shelter as the labs here had bred too many. Unfortunately, this meant that these babies had not been handled much. After introductions our new babies were settling in relatively okay. One of our females (Tofu) was still a bit dominant, but no large fights were happening. They also sleep in the same areas and seem to get along just fine now. Tahini (new baby) was initially extremely scared and bit or screamed any time we came near her, but she is doing so well now. She even dares to come stand on my hand and sit on my lap.
The problem we are having is with Lana. She was adapting extremely well in the beginning (much better than Tahini). She already dared to venture out of the cage and onto the sofa, even onto our laps. Wednesday morning they were both checked by the vet to see if they were healthy (which was the case). Since that evening Lana has been super scared all of a sudden. She doesn't want to come out of the cage or her hiding spots and seems generally uncomfortable. She is still eating and drinking and taking snacks from our hands. We have tried to see if she was in pain of any sorts, but with the vet check and also no change in behaviour after administrating pain meds, we assume she is not in pain. Do any of you guys know why she would be so scared all of a sudden? The vets said it might be that the group order still needs to be determined more and that she feels more dominated now? Tofu has been rilhiing her up a bit, but no injuries have happened. The question is also, do we take her out even though she is scared to make her used with the risk of making her more scared. Or are we leaving her alone with the risk of making her not used to us? When she is out she is exploring even though she seems scared and she does take food out of the cage. I have also had her in my sweater pocket and talk to her softly and she is scared but also takes food.
Thank you for any advise.
Regards,
Nynke
My boyfriend and I adopted two new female 14/15 week old rats two weeks ago. Both needed to be introduced to our already present 9 months spayed females. Our new addition to the family are white rats with pink eyes that we rescued from a shelter as the labs here had bred too many. Unfortunately, this meant that these babies had not been handled much. After introductions our new babies were settling in relatively okay. One of our females (Tofu) was still a bit dominant, but no large fights were happening. They also sleep in the same areas and seem to get along just fine now. Tahini (new baby) was initially extremely scared and bit or screamed any time we came near her, but she is doing so well now. She even dares to come stand on my hand and sit on my lap.
The problem we are having is with Lana. She was adapting extremely well in the beginning (much better than Tahini). She already dared to venture out of the cage and onto the sofa, even onto our laps. Wednesday morning they were both checked by the vet to see if they were healthy (which was the case). Since that evening Lana has been super scared all of a sudden. She doesn't want to come out of the cage or her hiding spots and seems generally uncomfortable. She is still eating and drinking and taking snacks from our hands. We have tried to see if she was in pain of any sorts, but with the vet check and also no change in behaviour after administrating pain meds, we assume she is not in pain. Do any of you guys know why she would be so scared all of a sudden? The vets said it might be that the group order still needs to be determined more and that she feels more dominated now? Tofu has been rilhiing her up a bit, but no injuries have happened. The question is also, do we take her out even though she is scared to make her used with the risk of making her more scared. Or are we leaving her alone with the risk of making her not used to us? When she is out she is exploring even though she seems scared and she does take food out of the cage. I have also had her in my sweater pocket and talk to her softly and she is scared but also takes food.
Thank you for any advise.
Regards,
Nynke
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