The Rat Room

I finally sucked it up and tried intros with Pony and two girls. It was clear to me that Pony was becoming very lonely. How did I know that? He would climb on me during out time and stay close by me which is totally out of character for him. Some might interpret that as the rat loving me more…NOPE. He was lonely and needed companionship, something no human can give. We can only be caretakers, nothing more, that doesn’t mean we don’t love each other.
So I placed Pony in the empty tub along with Chu and Bianca from the other colony. I chose these two girls because they have great personalities and energies. Bianca loves first and asks questions later. Chu enjoys a challenge and would rather explore and plow her way through rather than talk things out. They mesh really well with Pony. It’s been 6 days since their first encounter, we have since moved the intros into familiar ground. Pony gets really excited when it’s his out time. With the girls playing with him, he’s got an extra spring in his step. He explores his whole play area, he shows interest in new toys. He’s really enjoying his girls. Soon, I’ll be scrubbing down the cage and moving the two girls in with Pony permanently. I plan on allowing Chu and Bianca to continue to have play dates with their original crew but I suspect they will be just fine living with their Pony.

That’s right. The Gera group and Rory group is no more. They have joined forces and are all living together. It shall be called the Max group because he really is the Archie Bunker of the family. Everyone pretty much gets along except Max is just tolerating their move in. But he’s all talk no action still which is a good thing. In fact, it looks like Rory is keeping him in line. (go Rory)
The others really are happy. They love their new rat room and all the exploring they do all the time. It was the perfect time to add them all together. When there’s a change it kind of throws them off their focus point and in many instances it redirects their attention to something else, usually a common interest is the the changes. They bond together to take on the newness of their world.
I started these intros back at the end of June. It has been almost 3 months now. A few times I wanted to quit but I’m so glad I have pushed on and the rats are glad too. Meeko loves snuggling with his ladies. Chief is amazed and excited by the size of his cage. Everyone has benefited in some way, even Max. It has helped him overcome his introverted attitude and accept new furry buddies in his life. And there’s nothing better than that.

Out time in the new rat room.

Some rats can be aggressive but it’s really not that common. But in females, their moodiness can be misinterpreted as aggressive tendencies. Intact females can be very forceful and determined.
Females go through a heat cycle every 4 to 5 days. In some rats, it’s not noticeable while in others, it’s quite obvious. A rat in heat will do funny little hops, flutter their ears and even arch their backs dramatically when you touch them. Some females like to do back kicks at their buddies, hoping to convince them to join in the chase and do the courting dance.
It’s also not uncommon to have females get pushy and cranky during their heat. The desire to procreate is very strong. It’s 100 times worse if you happen to have males in the home which is why I always strongly advise against having both sexes. It’s stressful and not fair to the rats, either male or female. The rat will constantly and desperately try to reach the opposite sex. Rats can sense them from far away, they can “talk” to each other as well and will spend their every waking moment trying to reach their “honey”. This is another reason why spaying your rats is highly beneficial.
Spats or fighting can also occur with food. Some rats and I’ve seen this mostly in females become obsessive with stashing. The rat might even hunt down, flip and pin another rat in order to remove the food from their mouth so they can then stash it in their special spot. This is not necessarily aggression, simply an addiction. You can try to alleviate it by free feeding your rats and offering several dishes with food. Also, finding the stash in the cage and dispersing the food several times during the day will help keep the peace.
All these little quirks make our rats unique and so very lovable.

I adopted these 5 boys almost 1.5 years ago. These boys were made to be hawk food. But the hawk at the Science center died and the food went up for adoption. They were all going to be put to sleep but on person took pity on these helpless little souls. The boys were never really friendly from the start. It’s no wonder really since they were not bred to be pets. They lived in a shoe box not even big enough for them to stand up. Corn cob for bedding, water and pellets for food and nothing else. Instead of forcing them to be social and to bond with me, I decided to concentrate more on getting them buddies and a stable, secure life. Eventually, a couple of them warmed up to me. Rocher, especially, he even learned to fling himself in the air to grab hold of my shirt to climb up and get his veggies from me. Bug allows me to pet him as well. But Matou, Darcy and Echo were never approachable. They do enjoy their rat buds though. They live with 6 other very sweet pets, born into a loving home with a loving rat mom and a loving human mom too. These rats taught the Science North boys to be gentle and stable.
But much to my surprise, the last few weeks, the boys have come around. As I sat on the floor during their out time today, my heart warmed up as I was able to pick up each one, give them a kiss and some cuddles without a fuss, without any protest.
I always thought that forced socializing was the only way to bond with rats but giving them space and respect works as well… not as fast as the forced socializing but in the end, it paid off.
You have to know with each rat how to proceed, how to treat them… to respect their past and who they are and who they need to become. It’s always harder with rescues as they always carry baggage along with them.
Now, instead of just loving them from afar, I can actually rub their soft furry sides on my cheek and steal a kiss here and there. These boys make rescuing totally worth it if not wonderful.

Another good day. Not one puffy rat. The babies were playing and having fun, the older rats were hanging around, getting a cuddle here and there. The ones I had to keep more of an eye on were the two girls that would jump off the bed and go exploring the room. Chu and Bianca. I’d say it’s almost time to try familiar ground. I sort of don’t want too because things are going so well here. But I can see the two babies being really interested when Chu and Bianca jump down. It’s only a matter of time before they follow them. Then I’ll be in trouble cause those two are smaller and more brave. A few more days and I’ll try it.

Gera with Molly and Chu.

Chief grooming Little Doc.

An odd turn of events today. Somebody else stood up and claimed the alpha spot. I decided to add the cubes today, it was time to flush out the alphas and betas and find out who will be the one to take over, who will take on the challenge and who will gladly give their spot. The out time started out with everyone happy. Almost like they were glad to see each other again. They all went around sniffing and talking and getting reacquainted. They busily ran around, jumped in the cubes, got cozy and just relaxed too. Gera was in a funny mood. Not a bad mood but a very happy mood. I would watch him go around to everyone and gently dominate them. Almost all accepted this fact. Big Max was saying: oh sure, you can have it. Rory not so much, but he didn’t challenge it either. Nobody challenged Gera. Gera continued to befriend Chief and I think that’s why the others left Chief alone, in fact, it allowed Chief to walk around and explore. But the one who’s most happy about the alpha change is Meeko, Gera’s baby buddy. Meeko took this opportunity to play hard. He was excited, jumping on rats, running away, playing tag, and this got Little Doc to play along too, finally being the baby that he really is. It was a wonderful day for all.

Doc and Bianca playing.

A happy Scout.

Bianca and Chu off exploring the room. (what a surprise *roll eyes*)

Gera: “My work is done here.”

Some rats have that calming effect. Those are the ones that don’t get stressed over much of anything. They walk around, play and explore like nothing is ever out there to harm them. They are happy, content and all the other rats want a piece of that energy.
Today Chief started to go a little off. He was getting puffy and started to chatter all the while looking for a way out. Luckily, Molly and Gera, my gentle souls felt his energy go from worried to anxious real fast. They would take turns visiting Chief and calming him. It worked. Although Chief is still spending time alone squished between the wall and the pillow, today he did explore a little. We’ll get there… this I have no doubt.
It was also fun to watch Doc annoy the crap out of Rory. But Rory would do one swift ninja move on Doc which would stop him dead in his tracks almost yelling: Stop it! Doc would remain frozen, bugged eyed and then move on. Too funny.

Chief and Gera

Nap time in the napkins for Molly.

So today was back to no cubes and a fresh handful of cheerios. Sure enough all went very well. The females were never a concern… Today, the males really got to know each other and didn’t display any displeasure at any presence. It was a great out time. Chief did stay most of the hour squished behind the pillow. But he wasn’t alone, he had plenty of buddies go up to him and check him out. Gera went a few times for his cuddles. At one point, near the end of the hour, Max went up to Chief and stayed with him for the rest of the duration. It was almost like an apology for yesterday. I know, I know, I’m anthropomorphizing but a girl can dream can’t she? Actually, Max was letting the Chief know that they were cool now. I think I’ll continue with these neutral intros for at the very least one more week. Then we move to familiar ground. Yay!

Chief and Max making friends.

Everyone in the basket waiting to be transported back home.

A very relaxed Gera.

There are steps to intros for a reason. But no. I got too comfortable and decided to jump ahead. Today I added hidey holes, fleece cubes and such. Everything was going great. I could feel that the Chief was feeling more tense and anxious but I let it go thinking he just needs to familiarize himself. I should have paid more attention when I saw Gera go for his Chief grooming session and not stay long. He left almost immediately. If you want to know how things are going, watch the rats around. Duh. Gera pretty much told me that Chief was not in a good mood. This mood and signals he was sending made Max come to see him. Bad idea. Max decided it was time to flip the Chief and dominate. Ordinarily this is a good thing. But today, not so much, not with Chief being tense already and the fact that Max likes to use his teeth, bad combo. Chief ended up getting cut up a bit. Nothing majour, he’ll live but it was enough to make me realize: follow the damn intro steps. I washed up Chief and flushed out his wounds. He is back in his cage feeling better about it all. The sweet boy still runs to me when I go near his cage. The intro lasted almost an hour today. I didn’t end it right away, I didn’t want them remembering the butchering as the last thing… during Max’s dominating, all the rats around were very upset.
Now they are all back in their cages munching on their veggies. Tomorrow will be another day.

Max and Meeko.

Sweet Chief after the battle.

I have the most amazing rats ever.
I almost didn’t do an intro today. I didn’t get much sleep last night and I had an early morning dentist appointment. But I forced myself to smile and bring the gang together. Well… it was great! First, Max didn’t get puffy once. Not once! He even allowed Meeko to check him out and even abuse him a little like Meeko does to Gera all the time. Rory tried to get manly with Chief but then got bored of it fairly quickly. The truly amazing part, Gera who doesn’t do confrontations and pretty much prefers humans has decided that the Chief is his BFF. I couldn’t believe it when I saw him squished up against the wall together, Chief fiercely grooming Gera. Then when I thought it was getting too intense I pulled Chief away. A few minutes later, Gera made his back to his Chief for another grooming session.
Little Doc was going around marking everything. Once in a while I had to pin him and flip him but only to get him out of his intense desire to mark. It did help in that all the other rats, didn’t pay Doc any attention. Even Rory and Max were like: “whatever, I’m over it” with Doc. Chief didn’t have a run in with no one. At all. It was a great out time and intro.
I had given them a couple of handful of cheerios and that kept them busy and happy. I did however notice that Bianca would go missing a lot. I wasn’t too worried, my room is pretty safe. Then I decided to follow her next time she was back on the bed. Yep. Bianca was busy stashing cheerios under my desk.
I’ve got the best rats.

Caught red handed.

Gera and buddy Chief… love you man.

It’s huddle time.

A very content Max.