Charlize
Member
Hello,
I'm introducing a recently (3.5 weeks ago) neutered (and rescued) 8 month old male rat to my colony of spayed females (1.25 years and 2.75 years old). My old lady was my original alpha, and remained alpha after introduction of the two younger gals.
They've gone through the close cage exposure to introductions in the tub. No concerns in either of those areas, except that it takes a while for my male to leave their lady bits alone, which annoys them.
Today, they did intros in a more familiar play area to both rats (the couch). He's power groomed my least dominant rat already, however, there's some interesting behaviour (maybe) occurring with my elderly alpha. He was bothering her earlier on in introductions so she gave him a little "bugger off" nip a few times. It wasn't severe, and no blood was drawn. However, they seemed to poof up near each other after this interaction. However, after multiple exposures, they don't poof up next to each other anymore, typically.
But, today I noticed that when he got close to my old lady alpha, he poofed up a bit, contorted himself a bit sideways, and it looked as though he was placing his head down in front of her. I'm not sure if he was trying to submit, but she didn't take the bait and jump on him. I've been keeping a close eye on that particular behaviour to make sure that if she did nip he doesn't retaliate severely. Nothing has occurred thus far, but he'll continue to kind of sideways rub her and poof up, almost as though he's provoking her. She'll poof up in response to him dong this a few times, but not biting has ever occurred.
Is this a normal dominance establishment behaviour, or is this a sign of aggression that requires intros going back to the bathtub?
Thanks!
I'm introducing a recently (3.5 weeks ago) neutered (and rescued) 8 month old male rat to my colony of spayed females (1.25 years and 2.75 years old). My old lady was my original alpha, and remained alpha after introduction of the two younger gals.
They've gone through the close cage exposure to introductions in the tub. No concerns in either of those areas, except that it takes a while for my male to leave their lady bits alone, which annoys them.
Today, they did intros in a more familiar play area to both rats (the couch). He's power groomed my least dominant rat already, however, there's some interesting behaviour (maybe) occurring with my elderly alpha. He was bothering her earlier on in introductions so she gave him a little "bugger off" nip a few times. It wasn't severe, and no blood was drawn. However, they seemed to poof up near each other after this interaction. However, after multiple exposures, they don't poof up next to each other anymore, typically.
But, today I noticed that when he got close to my old lady alpha, he poofed up a bit, contorted himself a bit sideways, and it looked as though he was placing his head down in front of her. I'm not sure if he was trying to submit, but she didn't take the bait and jump on him. I've been keeping a close eye on that particular behaviour to make sure that if she did nip he doesn't retaliate severely. Nothing has occurred thus far, but he'll continue to kind of sideways rub her and poof up, almost as though he's provoking her. She'll poof up in response to him dong this a few times, but not biting has ever occurred.
Is this a normal dominance establishment behaviour, or is this a sign of aggression that requires intros going back to the bathtub?
Thanks!
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