My dirty monkeys finally have realized that we have rat invaders in the place. Yesterday Bronco took it upon himself to beat any rat that even so much as walk within touching distance of himself. A very uptight little rat, he needed a good strong energy to help him accept his role. So after he decided to slightly hurt Benji, I picked him up and placed him our “out time” cage. He remained in that cage for about 10 minutes, any longer and he really wouldn’t have understood why he was there. I take him out and he had forgotten all about his macho stress and had some fun on the rest of his out time. I was sure though that Bronco would very much need a neuter soon enough but today’s out time was even better. He didn’t care one bit about the Noobs and their cage being nearby. I am most pleased. It also helped big time to have the sweeties Sawyer and Desmond watching over the coveted cage spot where the smell is so much stronger. I think this means that all will work out fine and perhaps if I’m real lucky in the future, I might be able to intro the two colonies at some point.
It is very common and ok for rats to act out when new rats come into the home. With time they should settle down, others might need help and only a neuter might bring them back to their loving self. Some rats have a hard time understanding and accepting their instinctual behaviour to protect and be territorial. That’s our job, to help them. You can’t get mad when an animal acts out, you have to understand them and do everything in order to help them overcome their “feelings”.