TheFatRatGirl
Active Member
Hi Guy's I'll try not to ramble on too much, but this is a situation I've been dealing with for quite some time now, so it's a bit of a long story.
This is Darwin, an eight month old neutered male whom I recently tried to introduce to my mischief of six female rats.
This is Pearl, my most dominant female but altogether a very gentle rat who has happily accepted three babies into her mischief as well as one adult female that I rehomed at 1 and a half years old.
I used the carrier method to introduce Darwin to the mischief and as you can see in this picture (during the second stage of carrier method), I had a contented rat pile and things seemed to be going well.
They moved up to a furet furplast after this and things continued to go well so they moved into their permanent cage (Savic Royal Suite).
Everything went well at first, Pearl dominated Darwin but not aggressively (just pinning down and grooming). There's weren't any fights. Then, about three days later, I woke up to lots of screaming and found Pearl and Darwin had had a scuffle and were hissing at eachother. I thought is was just a normal scuffle as I've introduced a lot of rats in my time and now things can be a bit hectic for the first week or so while they sort their hierarchy out. But then I saw this:
Pearl was pinning Darwin down at hissing at him. He stayed in a submissive position but Pearl went ahead and nipped him anyway. The evening after I took this picture, Pearl began chasing Darwin around the cage and at one point they were snapping at each other's faces. Darwin was screaming worse than I've ever heard a rat sound before.
I separated them for a few days to cool off and then decided to try again and take things slower. They spent a lot longer in the carrier (two hours) and then moved up to the small cage and I saw Pearl do something I've never seen in any of the 26 rats I've had before. She pinned Darwin (who immediately submitted to being groomed), then she groomed him for a while and Darwin stayed still and allowed it. Then, out of nowhere - Darwin was still submitting on his back - Pearl paused, pulled her head back and then dove in and bit him hard enough to draw blood! I separated the fight but it was a small amount of blood so I tried again from the carrier stage and this time it went well enough that - after 48 hours in the small cage - Pearl and Darwin were cuddling together and grooming one another. All the other rats had accepted Darwin long before this. I moved them into the furet, this time for another 24 hours. Things were really good, Darwin and Pearl had become inseparable. I added hammocks and ropes and things to the furet and still there was no fighting so the next day they moved into the big cage again and everything was great...for two days.
Last night, there was screaming again and Pearl was chasing Darwin, biting at his feet. They ended up in a ball clawing at eachother before I could reach the cage and when I did Darwin flung himself out into my arms and was shaking. I felt awful, I won't lie. He had a small amount of blood around bite wound on his stomach and Pearl had come out worse; with a scratch on her face as well as several scratches on her body. These were defensive wounds though, as Pearl absolutely 'started it'. Pearl has never shown any signs of aggression. She is even so gentle that she's the only rat my hairless girl, Penny, allows to groom her. She is happy to be handled by humans, she is playful and sociable during free-range time, and she has no signs of cage aggression towards humans either. Darwin is another very sweet rat who is submissive by nature and had no trouble settling in with my other five females. Obviously he is separated now, currently with one of my other females so he's not alone.
My question is, had anyone dealt with something similar to this before and, if so, how did you deal with it? Sha'll I give up hope of Darwin ever joining the mischief or would it be worth trying again at some point in the future? My other choices are either; splitting my mischief into two groups - so Darwin would live with two or three of the females and Pearl with the other two or three; or moving Darwin into a completley separate group. I currently live under the same roof as my sister-in-law who had two mischiefs of four. One is four females, though they can be a bit testy and I'm not sure Darwin would fair any better with them, and the other is a nuetered male and three young females (about four months old) who I think Darwin could get along with quite well.
If you read through this whole post, thank you very much and I would really, really appreciate opinions and advice! Thank you!
This is Darwin, an eight month old neutered male whom I recently tried to introduce to my mischief of six female rats.
This is Pearl, my most dominant female but altogether a very gentle rat who has happily accepted three babies into her mischief as well as one adult female that I rehomed at 1 and a half years old.
I used the carrier method to introduce Darwin to the mischief and as you can see in this picture (during the second stage of carrier method), I had a contented rat pile and things seemed to be going well.
They moved up to a furet furplast after this and things continued to go well so they moved into their permanent cage (Savic Royal Suite).
Everything went well at first, Pearl dominated Darwin but not aggressively (just pinning down and grooming). There's weren't any fights. Then, about three days later, I woke up to lots of screaming and found Pearl and Darwin had had a scuffle and were hissing at eachother. I thought is was just a normal scuffle as I've introduced a lot of rats in my time and now things can be a bit hectic for the first week or so while they sort their hierarchy out. But then I saw this:
Pearl was pinning Darwin down at hissing at him. He stayed in a submissive position but Pearl went ahead and nipped him anyway. The evening after I took this picture, Pearl began chasing Darwin around the cage and at one point they were snapping at each other's faces. Darwin was screaming worse than I've ever heard a rat sound before.
I separated them for a few days to cool off and then decided to try again and take things slower. They spent a lot longer in the carrier (two hours) and then moved up to the small cage and I saw Pearl do something I've never seen in any of the 26 rats I've had before. She pinned Darwin (who immediately submitted to being groomed), then she groomed him for a while and Darwin stayed still and allowed it. Then, out of nowhere - Darwin was still submitting on his back - Pearl paused, pulled her head back and then dove in and bit him hard enough to draw blood! I separated the fight but it was a small amount of blood so I tried again from the carrier stage and this time it went well enough that - after 48 hours in the small cage - Pearl and Darwin were cuddling together and grooming one another. All the other rats had accepted Darwin long before this. I moved them into the furet, this time for another 24 hours. Things were really good, Darwin and Pearl had become inseparable. I added hammocks and ropes and things to the furet and still there was no fighting so the next day they moved into the big cage again and everything was great...for two days.
Last night, there was screaming again and Pearl was chasing Darwin, biting at his feet. They ended up in a ball clawing at eachother before I could reach the cage and when I did Darwin flung himself out into my arms and was shaking. I felt awful, I won't lie. He had a small amount of blood around bite wound on his stomach and Pearl had come out worse; with a scratch on her face as well as several scratches on her body. These were defensive wounds though, as Pearl absolutely 'started it'. Pearl has never shown any signs of aggression. She is even so gentle that she's the only rat my hairless girl, Penny, allows to groom her. She is happy to be handled by humans, she is playful and sociable during free-range time, and she has no signs of cage aggression towards humans either. Darwin is another very sweet rat who is submissive by nature and had no trouble settling in with my other five females. Obviously he is separated now, currently with one of my other females so he's not alone.
My question is, had anyone dealt with something similar to this before and, if so, how did you deal with it? Sha'll I give up hope of Darwin ever joining the mischief or would it be worth trying again at some point in the future? My other choices are either; splitting my mischief into two groups - so Darwin would live with two or three of the females and Pearl with the other two or three; or moving Darwin into a completley separate group. I currently live under the same roof as my sister-in-law who had two mischiefs of four. One is four females, though they can be a bit testy and I'm not sure Darwin would fair any better with them, and the other is a nuetered male and three young females (about four months old) who I think Darwin could get along with quite well.
If you read through this whole post, thank you very much and I would really, really appreciate opinions and advice! Thank you!
