Rat introduction

The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

rattietatties

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2019
Messages
23
Location
Schaumburg, Illinois
So I’ve had 2 male rats for a little over half a year now and recently (two weeks ago) we got a new baby. He’s about 2 - 2 1/2 months and for the past few days he’s been kept with his cage next to my two older boys. Introductions have been going questionably, they will sometimes he calm and ignore each other but has been boxing with my largest male at least once per introduction session. Today they squabbled a bit and I reached my hand in and he just climbed up it, I tried to put him back in but he was adamant about not going back in so I’m giving a little break right now. I was wondering in anyone has any tips to try to get them to get along better
 
Sounds like it's going pretty good. I would do a table top intro. Have them on the table with you sitting at their level. That can give the shy guys more confidence. Remember to encourage staying on the table. Also, add a plate of yummy wet food like mashed bananas. You want them siting near each other eating. They will learn that good things happen when they are close together.
 
So they’ve just been starting to get along and today I think one of them came at the baby to forcefully and it freaked him out and he ran into one of the tunnels to hide (they’ve been having play time together for about half a week). He’s been doing the thing where he’ll scurry up my arm if he sees it and refuses to go back on with the older two. Should I move back to them just being in a small pen with no toys or just give the baby a break to calm himself?
 
Sometimes you gotta use tough love. Baby will have to get used to them. Unless you see actual aggression, keep doing what you are doing.
How long are your intro sessions? An hour or more is ideal, it's good to see how they will react when they are tired. Will they become grumpy or cuddly?
 
Okay so they’ve gotten along pretty well and moved in together Thursday, the baby has kind of a established that my biggest rat is in charge but he and the other one have been scuffling a bit about who’s second (the baby is nearly as big or bigger than the older boy) the older one has some scratched around his face (he’s hairless) and I was wondering if this was normal or if I should separate them. (The cuts aren’t deep or anything more like small scratches)
 
That sounds good! Unfortunately nakies will show owies quite easily. His scratches are probably from baby trying to push nakie guy’s face away from him.
 
A few hours later they were cuddling together, and they don’t seem to be fighting or being as snappy with each other. The older boy (hairless) was originally preventing the baby from sleeping in anything but now he basically lets him walk all over him
 
Back
Top