Just got my first rat bite, in a year of rat ownership.
We have 2 boys we've had for a year, they live in the big cage in the living room. Jacob and Dominic: brothers. We adopted two others Wednesday who are not in quarantine in our bedroom [best we can do in a small apartment]. We were told Quilt, who is very much the larger and more dominant] was the social one and Gregory was the skittish one.
Since coming home, Quilt has drawn blood on Gregory, my wife, and myself. He is acting very surly. We've taken Gregory out of the quarantine cage due to a tail injury last night until his tail is better healed, but the 2 cages are beside each other at least, so the cagemates are not totally apart, for the good of the bonded pair. I'm wondering if Quilt is going into alpha overload as he can likely smell our boys in the apartment? He's refusing to come out of the cage for social time, trying to coax him out is what just got me bit. For the record, when they chew on your finger while biting, it really, really hurts.
Suggestions? The little guy has had a stressful week already, with the move, his cagemate being beside him, and anything else...but I'm not too fond of bleeding everytime he is near my or my wife's hands now, or putting an injured cagemate back in with him.
We have 2 boys we've had for a year, they live in the big cage in the living room. Jacob and Dominic: brothers. We adopted two others Wednesday who are not in quarantine in our bedroom [best we can do in a small apartment]. We were told Quilt, who is very much the larger and more dominant] was the social one and Gregory was the skittish one.
Since coming home, Quilt has drawn blood on Gregory, my wife, and myself. He is acting very surly. We've taken Gregory out of the quarantine cage due to a tail injury last night until his tail is better healed, but the 2 cages are beside each other at least, so the cagemates are not totally apart, for the good of the bonded pair. I'm wondering if Quilt is going into alpha overload as he can likely smell our boys in the apartment? He's refusing to come out of the cage for social time, trying to coax him out is what just got me bit. For the record, when they chew on your finger while biting, it really, really hurts.
Suggestions? The little guy has had a stressful week already, with the move, his cagemate being beside him, and anything else...but I'm not too fond of bleeding everytime he is near my or my wife's hands now, or putting an injured cagemate back in with him.
