The dynamics of my rat family have changed (for the worse)

[ratkin412]

About a month ago, my sweet rat Gracie passed away.

Although Gracie wasn't the 'alpha' rat, she did make fast friends with my newest addition, a younger female, "Lilly".

My alpha rat, Molly, gave Lilly a hard time when she came to live with us in March, but Gracie befriended Lilly immediately, and the three settled in pretty well together.

I should mention that my rats have a 'double ferret nation' as a 'home base', but they also are free-range 24/7: the cage door is never closed & my house is rat proofed.

Lilly never did sleep in the DFN, she chose to make nests in various locations around my home and just venture into the DFN for water & food.

Then Gracie died, and Lilly almost immediately began a coup attempt on Molly's authority (I just have the two rats - Molly & Lilly). Since Gracie died, there has been lots of squeaking every day. Lilly will go into the DFN where Molly mostly stays and chew on her. To be fair, Molly squeaks whenever Lilly touches her, but Lilly does have a habit of power grooming (in my opinion) way too close to Molly's eyes.

Occasionally the girls get puffy with one another, which wasn't happening (after the initial introductions) when Gracie was around. They will eat from the same dish just fine, however.

Molly, Lilly & Gracie were all lone rats that I adopted separately from Craigslist.

I am going to adopt another rat to shift the power structure, but I must say, for being "social" animals, my rats are not acting like it!

Any advice? Comments? Commiserations?

 

[temblabamomo]

I wonder if their large amount of free range time is a contributing factor. If they both have the run of the house, then they are never really forced to learn to live with each other. They can avoid each other when desired, and seek each other out to pick fights. I doubt they will ever bond as long as they have these options.

It might be good to take them back to square one, as if they were new in your home, and new to one another. Try a scary place intro, somewhere they can't just wander off or hide when they get weary of it. Then move on to supervised time in a limited space, like a table top or the bed. And lastly, if they can tolerate each other pretty well, have them stay in the closed cage. Not all the time, since you like them to have lots of roaming time. Maybe overnight.

I think doing this may help them to bond more to each other. Right now it sounds like they don't get along so well all the time, and aren't even going to try as long as they have the option to be away from one another.

 

[jorats]

Temblabamomo is exactly right. They have too much space right now. I would start closing them in and letting them out for a daily out time, a few hours a day. Get them used to each other again. Let them accept and adapt to each other. They are more or less strangers since they don't ever live together. So it's like intros everyday. If you see closing them in is too hard on them, then like temblabmomo suggests, start intros all over again.