Slightly aggressive male

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Whitneyb93

Active Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2013
Messages
34
Location
Richmod, VA
I have been bitten by one of my boys twice (the second one practically crippling my finger) but only when I was playing with him and he took it too far. My two boys get rough every now and then and I hear them screaming and check on them to not find any wounds so I figured, boys will be boys. Well oddly enough tonight I found that my biter ripped out a chunk of my other male's hair. I already plan on neutering when I save up (separating them tonight, too) but does anyone even think it will help?


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On a cute side note, I took Roy (the one being picked on) to another room away from Bubbles for playtime and he's so much happier :)

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Neutering is a good idea but ripping hair is really not an aggressive move. It's more like a yanking, controlling kind of move. I wouldn't have separated them. But since you did and now Roy is worried, I would start intros all over again. Do it like these two rats have never met each other before. Start fresh. This might help with the bullying.
Aww, Roy is a cutie!
 
I ended up not keeping them separating, just on close watch, and that was my mistake. Roy now has two pretty deep wounds ):
I called anyone I could (it's Sunday so that was rather difficult) and they pretty much told me not to clean the wounds out and to apply pressure but I think we all know how impossible that is on a rat who was just taken out of his cage, hahaha.
One is across his neck and the other across his leg so bandaging is next to impossible. Does anyone have any advice to keep it from getting infecting during the healing process?


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Next time you encounter a gash, you flush it out to make sure it's clean and just leave it alone. Wounds on rats need to heal from the inside out. If it closes on the outside first which it will if you bandage it or put an ointment on it, it will develop and abscess.

It sounds like your boy needs neutering asap.
 
Have you tried the time out cage? When one gets too rough put him in a time out cage with nothing in it and don't give him attention for ONLY 10 minutes then put him back in his cage or where ever you took him from. Anything longer than 10 minutes and they will forget why they are there and you cannot put anything in the cage because you cannot make it fun for them. Put them in time out as much as they need it - this has worked on a couple of ours. Your boy is adorable :heart: You do have to let them tussle some though to work out the alpha issue...
 
I've actually never heard of that! It's a great idea but really not comfortable yet putting the boys near each other. I'll definitely try that though, thank you!

Is it normal for a wounded rat to be really sleepy, by the way? Right after the sun sets everyone gets hyper and ready for playtime but not poor little Roy. He sniffs and licks my hand but doesn't really want to come from hiding


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Whitneyb93 said:
I've actually never heard of that! It's a great idea but really not comfortable yet putting the boys near each other. I'll definitely try that though, thank you!

Is it normal for a wounded rat to be really sleepy, by the way? Right after the sun sets everyone gets hyper and ready for playtime but not poor little Roy. He sniffs and licks my hand but doesn't really want to come from hiding


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Click to expand...

It might have to do with his injury or it just my be his personality. Did you try out time in a different location than where the injury occurred and see if he acts differently? I currently have one boy living alone for the same reason you describe, but he has out time with his two current cage mates and today they actually didn't fight!!!! He has been a bachelor now for over a month since he get too injured if I leave him in the cage with the others.
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Well I actually put Roy, the injured one, in a reptile tank with all his necessities and even his favorite bed. So he's been away from the scene of the crime since it happened. His gashes are really big though (I'm hesitating posting pictures because its kind of gross) so I don't want to bring the boys together until the cuts aren't quite so open. But here in a little bit I'm going to bring him out for playtime and wound cleanup so hopefully he will cheer up!
That does make me feel much better though! Maybe I won't have to get rid of my biter :)


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I just read something on another thread and I do have my un-spayed females' cage beside the males'. Does anyone think the hormones from that would have caused this? Bubbles doesn't bite people (he has bit me before but when I was rough hand wrestling him so I deserved it)


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Oh, that could very well be what set him off.
But still, a neuter will do him some good. In fact, I would have all the males neutered and then they can all live with the girls. That would make an awesome happy colony.
 
Oh yeah, some unspayed ladies can definitely get the boys whipped up. But like jorats suggested, neuter those boys so you can have one big happy colony of ratties. :D
 

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