Odd bullying

[Lucky4LeafClover]

My boys are 11 week old brothers and they have always been great with each other. Inside the cage they are totally fine and sleep in the hammocks and boxes together, they share food and mutually stash food as well. Jameson is a very laid back rat and would prefer to snooze, but Guinness is a ball of energy and is everywhere.... he runs everywhere, burrows everywhere and plays tag with my hand and wrestles with my fingers.. hes hilarious. He also pesters Jameson and I find him trying to wrestle with him constantly. He rolls him over and makes him squeak and generally get huffed up to where Jameson burrows into my sweater or tries to get back to the cage to get away from him. It has gotten to a point where I have to free range them separately, hubby takes one and I take the other... because they get into scuffles every time they are out together. None of my other rats ever did this and I am not sure if it is just a clash of personalities or a sign Guinness will have a bullying problem as he gets older. Ive never had a hormonal crazy boy and I am hoping this isn't a sign of whats to come. The wrestling isn't violent, its playful but Jameson is just not interested. Should I be worried?

 

[jorats]

They are still quite young, I wouldn't be worried yet. At about 5 months, it could escalate, that's when he'll need a neuter. Or it's very possible Jameson will stand up to him and become the alpha and settle Guiness down.

I remember once, I adopted two 12 months old brothers. The two were always scuffling and Pascal was always making Vincent scream. So I made up my mind to have Pascal neutered. But one evening, I decided to hide behind the corner and watch them. What I saw was Pascal minding his own business while Vincent ran up the ramp and jumped down on Pascal. Pascal would flip over Vincent and wrestle him down while Vincent screamed. Then, Vincent would get up, run up the ramp and jump on Pascal again. Pascal would play along and flip him again while Vincent screamed... that's when I knew they were just playing.

 

[EDK]

:giggle: sounds like two brothers just having fun and one general is just more playful then the other. I wouldn't worry about it yet, I have two girls that have kinda the same personalities. My smallest girl Lyra is a little more laid back then her older sister Zera, and they play fight and it sounds horrible but then I took a closer look and realized it was just rough play and Lyra tends to instigate it by jumping on Zera in a sneak attack and Zera merely turns on her little sister and rolls her over in a pin, quite silly of them and fun to watch

 

[Lucky4LeafClover]

Well that's good to hear, just shows I am once again over-worrying about things. Thanks for the replies.