What to do with a bully?

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Petitepuppet

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 5, 2009
Messages
258
Location
Scottish Borders
I recently got 2 boys, Steve and Moota, of a friend of mine. She said they have always had wee fights but I didnt relise how bad it was till now. Moota is constanly picking on Steve. Steve is covered in bits and his tail is now just a mess so I think it will be another trip to the vets for me.

I think I need to have Moota castrated but what should I do the now. Should I seperate them?

I have been planning on introducing them to my 3 boys but now I am not sure. I dont want Moota to beat my other lads and I dont want them to picking on Steve because I think he has been throw enough.

I dont know what to do
 
A neuter should stop all that, get it booked asap :thumbup: Also, you could put him in a carrier or something for a 5-10 minute time out whenever you catch him kicking off with Steve, that might help for now.
 
Thanks for reply.

Moota is now booked in to see the nut fairy on monday morning. I am a bit scared for him but I know this whole bullying steve cant go on.

Do u have any idea how long after he is castrated it will take for him to calm down?
 
It can be instant or up to 3 months but continue to work with him until then.
I wouldn't separate your boys either. But have a smaller cage handy and when you find the aggressor bullying, pull him out and put him in the smaller cage for 10 minutes. Make sure there is nothing else in the cage. No fleece, no bedding nothing, just a cage so he learns that he will be put in an unpleasant place when bullying.
I've got two rats I need to bring in for a neuter. Sadly, mine is booked for July 2nd. I envy those that can get them done sooner. My vet is just too darn busy.
 
Neutering will deffitnly do the trick. If you have a good experienced vet, I wouldn't be worried. Once Hunter was neutered, he calmed down instantly, but it can take up to 3 months.
 
jorats said:
It can be instant or up to 3 months but continue to work with him until then.
I wouldn't separate your boys either. But have a smaller cage handy and when you find the aggressor bullying, pull him out and put him in the smaller cage for 10 minutes. Make sure there is nothing else in the cage. No fleece, no bedding nothing, just a cage so he learns that he will be put in an unpleasant place when bullying.
I've got two rats I need to bring in for a neuter. Sadly, mine is booked for July 2nd. I envy those that can get them done sooner. My vet is just too darn busy.
Click to expand...

I have a smallish cage that is there incase I ever need a hospital cage so I can use this for when he has been naughty. I like that idea, its like sending him to the naughty chair :lol: .
There are that many vets in my town that you can usually get an appointment the same day but I couldnt get an appointment with the vet I wanted until monday lol.
 
Ratty Momma said:
Neutering will deffitnly do the trick. If you have a good experienced vet, I wouldn't be worried. Once Hunter was neutered, he calmed down instantly, but it can take up to 3 months.
Click to expand...

Its good to hear a positive story :) . It would be lovely to have instant results but I dont mind waiting 3 months for him to settle, as long as it works.
 
Petitepuppet said:
Ratty Momma said:
Neutering will deffitnly do the trick. If you have a good experienced vet, I wouldn't be worried. Once Hunter was neutered, he calmed down instantly, but it can take up to 3 months.
Click to expand...

Its good to hear a positive story :) . It would be lovely to have instand results but I dont mind waiting 3 months for him to settle, as long as it works.
Click to expand...

Hunter was very aggressive.
The first time he showed aggression was with his brother Teddy. Hunter started to fight with Teddy on the tabel, almost fell off, I was not thinking and tried to catch them, which I did, but when I did, Teddy bit Hunter and Hunter bit my finger then bit Teddy. Hunter only bit me because when they fell I touched them and Teddy bit Hunter because of that and my finger was the closest to Hunter. All boys were puffy, I was bleeding like crazy, Hunter was bleeding and Teddy was bleeding. We went to the e-vet first to make sure Hunter and Teddy were fine, my vet said they were and just gave them a shot for infection, then I went to emerge for 7 hours and got my finger stitched.
The second time, Hunter started a fight with Bruno, he bit Bruno and Bruno bit him. Back to the vet we went and everything was fine, we just got a shot. We disscussed things with our vet and we decided a neuter would be best because Hunter was always starting fights. Daily they would get into fights, it came to the point where I was afraid to leave them alone and I was sleeping by the cage.
3 days before the neuter, Hunter started fighting with Oscar and bit right through his shoulder. Went to the e-vet again, Oscar needed 12 stitches ..I know rats usally heal on thier own, but this was a HUGE deep cut.
We got Hunter neutered, he was in a recovery cage for 3 days beside his brothers, with two hours playtime a day with everyone. He has been in the cage with everyone for 7 months now, and there's no aggressiveness at all.
 
The bullying has started tonight so I have put Moota into a small hamster cage I use for vet trips and he is not a happy boy. He is chewing at the bars and dosnt look very pleased so hopfully he will soon learn his lesson. I just wonder how many times I am gonna have to do this tonight...
 
Now I dont know what to do :( .

Moota has been in and out the cage all night because he wont leave steve alone. Now steve has several gashes to his tail.

I am too scared to put Moota back in with him. I have work tomorrow so need to sleep tonight and there is no way that is gona happen when the 2 of them are in the same cage. I am scared if I put Moota back that I am gona wake up to find Steve dead :sad3: .
 
Maybe for your peace of mind you can separate them for the night so you can sleep. If you put the cages close to each other, maybe they won't feel so lonely.
 
I agree with Joanne. If your gut is telling you that it's that bad then do separate them when you aren't there to supervise. You know more than anyone what is happening and if his energy is telling you that he needs to be on his own then do so until the neuter. Then you can start fresh with intros.

My mom had a very aggressive rat, so aggressive, he would jump into the air to bite at any part of your body. The neuter was instant. He calmed down the very next day.
 
Thanks for all the advise guys.

I seperated them last night and I am going to keep Moota on his own till the neuter.

Would it be a good idea to intro steve to my other 3 boys now? Or should I wait for Moota and intro them as a pair?
 
Thats what I was thinking.

I will start intros with Steve tonight.

Since removing Moota from the cage, Steve has been comin to the cage door when I enter the room and sleeping in one of the hammock which I havnt seen him do before. He has been spending that much time hiding, its nice to see him :) . I just hope my boys are good to him.
 
I'd keep them separated. We got Warren and Squirm from Raven when she had a rescue litter and they were 4 mths old or so. They were fine the first couple of days and then Warren went piranha on us. He bit Squirm, he bit me, he bit my son. We called it testosterone poisoning of the brain. I had hopes of all my boys being together and had Warren and another rat neutered. Unfortunately it wasn't a very experienced vet and all four incisions festered and abscessed. But in the end Warren healed up nicely and became a very sweet, supersquish rat. It did take a few weeks though for him to calm down. He had a major freakout one day and ripped Squirm's belly open. Off to the REAL rat vet and Squirm had the nicest stitch job and just the right abx for him. I never again went to a mediocre vet.


Good luck, neuters can be a lifesaver.
 
:joy: Yippeee!!!

I have just had Steve out with my other 3 boys and it went great. They spent about an hour together and there was only one wee hiccup. Steve gave Mr Jingles a wee hump and Jingles get a lil fright and froze for a while but soon got over it and gave Steve's face a groom. I am soo chuffed it went well.

I have put Steve back in his cage by himself for the night. I am not working on sunday so I thought I would get them all in the cage together on saterday so that if I have to split any fights up during the night I wont have to worry about being tired the next day.

:dance:
 

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