vickye69
Well-Known Member
First, some back-story.
My brother (who still lives with my parents) bought a pair of male rats months ago. He kept them in a fish tank, which sucked, but he was taking decent care of them besides that. For some reason he decided that he wanted more than two rats, so he got two more at some point. Eventually he got sick of them, and had all four of them crammed in that 10 gallon tank.
I was over at my parents house last week, and my dad was griping about how he had to feed them and clean the cage since my brother didn't care and never even bothered to look at the rats anymore. So, even though I've never had rats before and know nothing about rats, I took them. I couldn't let them live the rest of their lives in that filthy fish tank.
Anyway, my dad said they were all males, so I assumed they were. I brought them home and put them in a left-over petstore cage I had and let them adjust for awhile. After they had settled down a bit I checked them all over and it turns out that two of them are females. So, now I have two cages, which is fine. I've got three cages of guinea pigs, so I can deal with multiple rat cages too.
Anyway. All the rats were getting along fine. They were happy with each other, and they were fine when we took them out to run around on my bed. A few days ago, they all went nuts. The boys started fighting at night, rolling around the cage and screaming all night long, so they're seperated. The girls decided that they're going to bite me every time I go near the cage. Not just the mouthing and tasting that they've done before, I've got at least three serious bleeding bites on my hands. Two bites happened through the bars, and one happened when I tried to pick one of the girls up out of the cage.
So. Why are the boys fighting? Why are the girls biting me? How could I tell if they're pregnant or not? If they are pregnant, would that make them more prone to bite me? I really have no idea about rat behavior, so any advice would be great!
My brother (who still lives with my parents) bought a pair of male rats months ago. He kept them in a fish tank, which sucked, but he was taking decent care of them besides that. For some reason he decided that he wanted more than two rats, so he got two more at some point. Eventually he got sick of them, and had all four of them crammed in that 10 gallon tank.
I was over at my parents house last week, and my dad was griping about how he had to feed them and clean the cage since my brother didn't care and never even bothered to look at the rats anymore. So, even though I've never had rats before and know nothing about rats, I took them. I couldn't let them live the rest of their lives in that filthy fish tank.
Anyway, my dad said they were all males, so I assumed they were. I brought them home and put them in a left-over petstore cage I had and let them adjust for awhile. After they had settled down a bit I checked them all over and it turns out that two of them are females. So, now I have two cages, which is fine. I've got three cages of guinea pigs, so I can deal with multiple rat cages too.
Anyway. All the rats were getting along fine. They were happy with each other, and they were fine when we took them out to run around on my bed. A few days ago, they all went nuts. The boys started fighting at night, rolling around the cage and screaming all night long, so they're seperated. The girls decided that they're going to bite me every time I go near the cage. Not just the mouthing and tasting that they've done before, I've got at least three serious bleeding bites on my hands. Two bites happened through the bars, and one happened when I tried to pick one of the girls up out of the cage.
So. Why are the boys fighting? Why are the girls biting me? How could I tell if they're pregnant or not? If they are pregnant, would that make them more prone to bite me? I really have no idea about rat behavior, so any advice would be great!