Stu pulls her friend around by the tail

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mamarat2

mamarat2

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
1,385
Location
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Stu (who is a girl) and Mariel have recently been introduced to my gang of ladies and neutered boys. Things are going pretty well at this point. The only problem I see is that Stu keeps tryings to drag Mariel around by her tail. Now granted Mariel is only 4 months old and Stu is about two years, so maybe she thinks she is trying to keep the little one in line? Mariel then nips Stu to get her to release her. We are continuing with intros and they are now all (6) in the big cage together and have been for two fulls days and night. I just catch them at it every once in a while, and nothing major just scrapes out of it, which is why I haven't separated them again.

Any thoughts?
 
I think you are right and she's just being maternal. It's the same thing between my young Isabelle and older Couscous. Couscous just can't leave Isabelle alone. Even with Iasbelle older now, Couscous will sometimes try to drag her. It's kind of cute to see it.
 
jorats said:
I think you are right and she's just being maternal. It's the same thing between my young Isabelle and older Couscous. Couscous just can't leave Isabelle alone. Even with Iasbelle older now, Couscous will sometimes try to drag her. It's kind of cute to see it.
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Yah I kinda figured it was pointless to pick my battle with that one, the little one just HATES it lol. Plus Mariel is my husbands' rat and everytime she yells he runs in there to check on her :roll:
 
I had an older girl (Nellie) when I was still bringing home babies. Every baby I brought in she would manhandle it (it seemed to me) if it tried to leave her side. Never hurt them, just major stress (for me) with the babies shrieking. Major maternal.
Has Stu been around young'uns before this? Is it young'uns or just Mariel in particular that she does this with?

(I feel for your hubby, even the 3rd baby she did that to I was still freaking & checking over the plaintive baby screeches)
 
Isn't it funny how men will latch on to one rat? Am I the only one to notice this? (perhaps this is fodder for a whole other thread.....)
 
moon said:
Isn't it funny how men will latch on to one rat? Am I the only one to notice this? (perhaps this is fodder for a whole other thread.....)
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Sometimes Jordan is like that. I wish I could have seen him interacting with Aslan and Miraz when he was taking care of them when I was back in Ottawa. Now... well... *sigh* At least he will feed them sometimes for me.
 
Fidget said:
I had an older girl (Nellie) when I was still bringing home babies. Every baby I brought in she would manhandle it (it seemed to me) if it tried to leave her side. Never hurt them, just major stress (for me) with the babies shrieking. Major maternal.
Has Stu been around young'uns before this? Is it young'uns or just Mariel in particular that she does this with?

(I feel for your hubby, even the 3rd baby she did that to I was still freaking & checking over the plaintive baby screeches)
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Don't think Stu has been around others, as she came from a home where she was the lone rat. She is still adjusting to any rats being around her, maybe just having the little one around really kicks in with the instincts.
 
Knowing Stu, I'm not surprised to here this. LOL I don't think she means any harm though and is just being protective. If it helps, my ferrets would ALWAYS drag around any new baby I brought home. It's probably just instinct. Eventually Mariell will get tired of it and let Stu know.
 

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