Olivia - Jealousy

[LA]

I wanted to share something with you.
When we got Olivia and Pearl, Olivia was over the top outgoing. Then as she got settled into the cage and the dynamics got sorted out she calmed down a lot. Then she became very recluse in my opinion. Then she would push around Hazel and lose and get extremely huffy. You couldn't pick her up and cuddle her, she would squiggle out and sulk. Ruby who is alpha has selected her sister Hazel as second and that was that. I noticed when outtime would come she wouldn't come out, she would sit in the cage and just look. She would curl up with her tail around her and just lie there. I knew something was wrong but I didn't know what. I couldn't figure it out. She would pester Hazel, Hazel would go into the tube and Olivia would bug her until she got out. Last night Wayne and I came to a realization. We noticed that it got a lot worse when Hazel was put on meds. So twice a night she was getting a treat - Olivia who is always trying to match up to Hazel wasn't getting any. So last night we decided to put a little ensure in the syringe for Olivia - no meds just ensure. Well I never saw such a look of complete joy on a rat face before. She sat in Waynes hands and just licked it all up. So although ensure may put a little weight on her, happiness is key. I will keep you up to date on how it goes. I'm hoping this helps her sadness.

 

[Moon]

LOL, silly lady, doesn't she know ratties aren't supposed to like meds?

 

[LA]

HEHE I guess Hazel likes how I mask them and thinks it's a great treat? Silly girl.

 

[Godmother]

That's interesting. I can well imagine that ratties take treats as a statement about hierarchy, since they don't know about meds. I've been making sure that the ones who don't get meds get a Cheerio (mainly to distract them so they don't try to steal the others' meds), but maybe that helps keep down the hard feelings.

 

[MumsyRat]

I think you hit the nail on the head there LA. When you think about it, the rats are your kids and can you imagine the bru-ha-ha if you were to give only one of your children a treat every day and not the others?

It's funny that you would post this because I've been giving JJ meds the past couple of weeks and just the other day I realized that Arthur's been acting pissy. After an incident where Arthur stole the syringe and wouldn't give it back I came to pretty much the same conclusion you did and now Arthur gets some diluted strawberry quick in his very own syringe.

Our fuzzballs are so spoiled!

:tumkiss:

 

[Dahlas]

That is so funny because I noticed the same thing....Maisie is one of my mommy's girls...She needs extra cuddling and loves to sit in my cleavage (not a big spot trust me ) and watch the other kids play. She has done this since she was a wee one. Well Maise and Tilly got spayed first so when the next group of girls got spayed of course they needed their belly's checked......First couple of times Maisie would come over as usual but I would say "just a minute wittle Maisie” (who is not really little anymore she is actually the biggest female) "Mommy needs to check the other girls"...and I would look over the other five girls........the third time I did this Maisie wouldn't come to me....and would run away from me. I never thought she was jealous but it concerned me enough that I started to want to check her over to........... A couple days of checking her first and everything was back to normal....never really thought much about it until now about it until now.
There was another time that the girls all acted jealous when I was patting some foster babies and they all came over and cuddled on my lap....as if to say "pet us Mommy we are the babies"
Silly wee ratties....aren't they so sweet.

 

[twitch]

you know, this may be chop suey's issue. zen gets his meds 3 times a day and chop suey has been getting progressively less interested in me and just has a general feeling of ugh... you know, half annoyed, half sad... i wonder if giving him a syringe of nummys would make this go away.... hmmm...

but in the other cage, bribery gets his meds 3 times a day and bribery, stewart and serraphim get fed ensure baby cereal with a syringe at least 2 times a day and no one seem upset... mind you they do get the left overs that the other three don't eat (there isn't normally more then a taste left anyway) and i normally feed after i dose bribery...

in anycase we all have silly ratties! :lol3:

 

[LA]

I have been making sure to give Olivia a treat when Hazel gets her meds. It's worked wonders. She's come out of her shell more. Bright eyes and she's started bruxing again - something I haven't heard from her in months. :happydance: