Rat won’t get along with others

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emmarose221

New Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
3
Location
Northern California
Hi! I need some advice on what to do about my rat named Rufus. When I got him, he was about 4 months old. I introduced him to 2 baby rats (Archibald and Frank) and they all got along fine. He was a very social, friendly rat who loved to come out of the cage and spend time with me while his brothers were more anxious and scared of humans. They all got along great. Well recently, I moved in with my boyfriend and he has 2 rats as well. At this point, Rufus was almost a year old and Archie & Frank were a few months younger. My boyfriends rats are younger than all of my rats but not babies. When we introduced them, we did it in neutral territory, put vanilla on them, did the carrier method, etc. However we did the introductions in only 1 day (I know, we should have gone slower). They all seemed fine with eachother and weren’t having serious fights. Rufus was mostly uninterested in them and he wasn’t showing dominant behavior, he just wanted to get away. We upgraded to the Midwest Double Critter Nation cage and they had plenty of room. No serious fights. My two younger rats got along really well with his two rats and they each made a new best friend. Rufus during this whole time has just been a loner who stays to himself a lot of the time in the cage. The others all cuddle on top and he sleeps alone in a box on the bottom. None of the rats cuddle with him but I don’t think that he wants them to and is territorial. When I watch them during free time, Rufus is obsessed with mounting the others and sniffing their privates. All the other rats are just exploring and Rufus is trying to establish dominance the whole time or is completely uninterested in them. He has always been a rat that is more interested in humans than other rats but he didn’t used to mount other rats the whole time. The reason that this is a problem right now is because Rufus is a hairless rat and he keeps getting hurt. Really bad scratches. I separated the rats the other day because Rufus got an abcess under his eye from one of the fights- I put him with one of my rats and one of my boyfriends that is more submissive. Well- he started harassing my rat and they got in fight! I assumed that he was getting hurt from the new rats but things aren’t going well with my other rats now either. At first I thought Rufus was being outcast and bullied due to his injuries but then I realized he was the one that started fights. Now he's alone on the bottom and the others are all on top. I want to know what I should do next- keep them separated, redo introductions after a break, neuter? I would just stick one of mine on the bottom with him for company but he seems pretty antisocial and just stays alone in his box. He loves humans and is great at free roam so maybe I could just house him alone & let him out more often? I want him to be able to cuddle with others again but he just hasn’t been doing that. I just don’t want him to get hurt anymore. Thanks!
 
I had the same problem what I would do was put them together and let see echother. Now this my not work cuz I had two rats but I'll tell you anyways. I let them see each other and see what they would do if one started a fight I pulled him away and gave the other one a treat. If they both did not fight over this period of time they both would get a treat. Let's say you came home and there where no scratches on every one well then you give them all a treat but if there is scratch,s find out who it was one your rat and two the other rat who fought back. Now I'm not say no self defense but if it's to bad then no treat for them.

I hope this works love Animal lover
 
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