The Rat Room

I’m a glutton for punishment? Not really, I knew Gera needed more buddies. His little Meeko can get annoying and Gera loves to cuddle. I have been doing intros with Gera and Meeko with Doc but it wasn’t going so smoothly. Doc would constantly try to aggressively dominate the boys. So my intros are now with Gera, Meeko, Doc with the Rory and Molly crew, in all 9 rats. My worries were Doc and Rory. Rory can be a little neurotic in his alpha role. But, I was worried for nothing.
I placed all the rats on a neutral spot which caused them to stress and be somewhat fearful of the new place. This works in our favour and forces rats to bond. I placed a big bowl of baby cereal in the middle which was very well received. lol
The intro lasted an hour and with no real issues. Some interesting dynamics… Doc settled right down and respected Rory as alpha. Not once did Doc dominate anyone. He was a good boy. He needed a father figure to keep him calm. He sure had a ball sniffing up all the 4 spayed girls. Bianca, my little hussy enjoyed the attention too. At one point, Rory towered over little Meeko and that totally freaked him out, immediately Max stepped in between Rory and Meeko. Interesting how Max became the peacemaker. Almost like allowing himself to be the punching bag. Gera at first only wanted to be with me. For me to take him away, but eventually he enjoyed all the extra furries around him. Finally at the end, I took them back to their cage one by one, leaving Doc and Molly for last. The two were cuddled together for the longest time. Doc looking at me with his big sad eyes… my heart broke as I could almost hear him say: can I keep her mom? Do I have to go to my cage all alone again? In time sweet Doc, in time you won’t be alone any longer.

In this pic: Meeko, Max and Gera

Back in June, I also picked up two sweet boys. They were suppose to go to my sister’s place but some unfortunate event has prevented the adoption to go through so I took them in instead. Meeko is a young double rex boy and Gera a most laid back sweet rex.
These two weren’t always together. They were put together by chance and luckily it worked out very well. It was without any doubt that it would work because even though Gera is a much older boy (16m) he is the sweetest most loving rat I have ever known. Gera knows rat talk and body language and adjust his to match his buddy. He knows when to be submissive and knows when it’s time to stand up. But he’s most happy on a human. He will seek you out and won’t leave you alone until his out time is over. A real people rat.
I was worried that Meeko would lose that baby happiness being with an older rat but nope. Not with Gera, Meeko is his happy bouncy popcorning self with Gera and Gera gets into the baby bounce with him. They are a ray of sunshine in my life right now especially with having to deal with Doc and Chief. Those two frustrated rats are trying real hard to forget their past. Doc is able to have his out time with Gera and Meeko and once Chief and Doc are neutered, the real intros will begin.

Please meet Meeko and Gera:

A small hobby rattery in southern Ontario got slightly out of hand and quickly became overwhelmed with rats. They were found out and the landlord needed them all gone. Luckily a couple of good friends of mine decided to go and check out the situation. The rats were in a horrible state. They had 29 males crammed in a wooden crate type cage and 19 females in a much too small a cage. The rats were living on pine, no food and hardly any water. Almost all the males have sores, cuts and bruises. Some are in such bad mental state, they will need a neuter to help them cope with the stress of a horrible habitat and overcrowding. I wanted to help and decided to adopt two of the males. I brought them home and when the dust settled, the true personality of Big White came through. He is one stressed boy. He puffs up like a rat in a dryer and chatters loudly. He attacks any rat that goes near him. Lucky for me, he hasn’t realized that he could hurt me too if he wanted too. He’s still scared of me which is a good thing for now. I had him with his buddy Little Mink and they seem to get along fine until we got home. Big White doesn’t really like Little Mink. So for now I’ve got the two separated until their scheduled neuters.
Big White is now named Chief. I’m guessing he’s about 6 to 8 months of age. I know his type and with a neuter, he’ll soon be jello.
Little Mink is now named Doc. He’s just a baby, about 3 to 4 months old, which breaks my heart because instead of playing and bouncing and having a great baby time, he’s just totally stressed and scared. He’s unsure of his home, unsure of other rats and very unsure of me.
It’s so easy to breed. You put rat A with rat B and make babies and money signs dance before your eyes, until you realize rats are not in demand. It takes a special person to do things right. If you really need to breed, you need patience, time and space. You need money and a good vet. You need to know your rat’s background and have full support of your family. You also must have a demand or you will be stuck with the supply. Better yet… don’t breed at all. Don’t make more of these poor rats who ultimately end up needing a forever home.

It’s going to take me lots of work, time and patience with Chief and Doc. But I know I can get them to come around and be real rats enjoying life. They’ve had a super rough start… it’s time to give them an amazing forever.

Please meet my new boys. Big White aka Chief

And sweet Little Mink aka Doc

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”.

That is if bud is your body part. Some rats like to nip. I’m not talking blood gushing, bone cracking biting. Nips on the toes, on the arms, on the cheek… anywhere they please. I’ve had a few nippers in my colonies but lately I’ve been lucky with these new groups. My last big time nipper was Loki and she’s passed a good long while ago. So I thought, right on, I’m safe. The warm weather is here now and I no longer need my slippers nor my socks while hanging out in my home. To my surprise, I’m getting nipped again. Benjamin seems to think that toes are tasty. I think he actually enjoys the shrieking and sudden jerk of my foot cause he comes back for more. Nipping is not a bad thing in rats, in fact I believe it’s all part of their play and exploring process. I really don’t think there is any way to teach them not to do this although there are methods to discourage nipping. Shrieking loudly helps with some rats. Benji seems to like it but another thing you can try is enclosing the rat in a small cage. When they nip, you grab them immediately, say NO and put in the cage for 10 minutes. Repeat the process if he continues. Eventually he will associate small enclosure and nipping does not make for a happy rat.
I’ve noticed though that with time the rat seems to grow out of the nipping. I’ve never punished it, I was simply careful. I’ve always regarded it as a hello, I’m here, give me some attention, it’s definitely nothing malicious or aggressive.
So next time you take your socks off…watch out for tiny teeth.

Well… maybe not but she’s a brave rat. Chu formerly known as Smooch just won’t stay put. She’s got the bug in her and she’s sprouting her wings. It doesn’t matter where she lands, she’ll happily explore the new found space.
So the Noobs have their out time on the couch. Oh but not Chu. The couch and dresser is simply not big enough for this little girl. She’s got things to do and places to see. I turn my back one second and I see her walk by my feet. Her soft fur on my bare skin is what alerted me to “rat on the loose”. I pick her up, gently scold her and pray to god it was a one time thing. Nope. She’s now discovered she can jump good distances and will attempt anything. So she finds her way to the floor. She’s made quite a find, a soft furry pet. Each time she jumps down she makes a bea line for Toby. Toby is my 17 year old cat. She’s old and full of arthritis and can barely move. And she’s not fond of rats, ok, she’s pretty darn scared of them. But Chu is convinced the two can become fast friends. My money is on “ain’t happening”. Poor Toby tries to run away on her rickety old bones but Chu is so much faster. The sneaky little rat keeps a few inches behind while Toby snails away and looks back and sees Chu at her heels and gives me a pitiful cry. So I rescue Toby and pick up little Chu. It’s a funny site… looks like I’ll need to keep a very close eye on Chu, my brave one.

For the last couple of days, I’ve been putting Rory and Max into the girls cage as part of their intro process. Things have been quiet and good but mainly because Max stays hidden in the downstairs igloo. Whenever his two girls come and hang with him you see him perk up and do the happy head shake. The girls are quite smitten with him too, who wouldn’t be, a strong young black buck like him, with that sexy berkshire tummy.
I’ve been waiting for the sign that it’s time to move them in together permanently. I got it today. Max felt comfortable enough to wander around the cage. He took a walkabout, greeting the girls as he passed and finally reached the upstairs cube where Rory has claimed as his. Max never huffed up, he climbed into the hammock with Rory, the two greeted but nothing more. They exchanged hellos, how are you doing, do yo think she’ll put us on the couch again today? Small talk really… and then Max went back to his den with his girls. I just now looked back at the cage, he’s actually popcorning up and down the stairs. Silly boy… happy boy. Happy mom.
Now I need to wait for the weekend to attach both cage together as well as find a supplier for another Critter Nation.
All is well in Noobland.

I now have 3 colonies of rats. One cage, my young adult males have been living together quite nicely until recently. Some of the young bucks have decided it was time to act up. They are being bullies and just plain mean to some of the others. Then it dawned on me. The Noobs! The noobs have 2 intact females. They are getting spayed on June 4th. The girls must be in overtime sending off their cycle signals which must be driving my boys a little crazy. Even thought their cages aren’t even close together, rats have a keen sense of smell, especially when it’s a “come and get it boys” announcement.
Keeping intact males and intact females in the same household is asking for trouble. The males are living in hormonal hell with the girls begging to be had. Rats are very determined to meet and procreate which is why I always recommend keeping only one sex in the home or altering them. It’s simply not fair to the rats to force them to live with such stress.
I know this will pass with my boys, I need to be a little more firm with the young males, settling them down. June 4th can’t come soon enough. There’s no denying the scent of a woman.

Intros should always be on neutral ground, a place where no rat have been and not yet claimed as theirs. But… when all goes well on neutral ground, it’s time to move to familiar ground hence my dilemma. My Noobs do not have familiar ground. They’ve only called this place home for a week now. However, I realized that the cage could be considered familiar ground yet cages are territory and restrictive so this could turn ugly. But if any aggression will happen, it will be in the cage. I would never ever do this with my residential rats. I have too much respect for them to just throw them in the cage and watch to see if they will battle it out. But with these guys, I had no choice. I chose the girls cage because the girls are quite gentle and welcoming. They already showed me how much they love the boys. If anything would happen, it would be between them. One thing to my advantage is that the cage was not territory to Rory nor Max but could be quickly claimed… as Rory did.
Max kept to the bottom of the cage, accompanied by Chu and Scout while Rory moved into the upper cube cuddling with Bianca and Molly. They stayed like this for the better part of the morning until Rory ventured downstairs. He took offence to seeing Max and immediately flexed his muscle. Max confused allowed to be flipped but wouldn’t allow Rory the customary grooming of the belly and side. He was chattering quite loudly letting Rory know that he was about to lose it. So before anyone got hurt, I plucked Rory off of Max and slipped him back upstairs where Rory immediately decided to go back into the cube and eat the stashed blocks.
Everything has been quiet all day and in the evening as well. I will be separating them tonight, back into their own cages. I won’t risk anything happenning while I’m not here to observe and intervene if necessary. But tomorrow… we will start anew. Getting closer to the day they all live together has one big happy colony.

For intros to be successful, they must be consistent. Skip a day and it could mean starting all over again. The more intros in the day the better. The goal of doing these intros is to allow the rats to get to know each other and to remember that other buddies exists and have the potential to become a bonded buddy. Today, I did two intros. The first one in the morning was going good but with Max still pretty tense. Finally Rory stepped up to the plate and did what Max needed. Rory flipped him. Max was getting out of control again, all worried and stressed out, the girls could sense this and this sent them in a whirl, finally Rory came up to him and flipped him. There was a lot of screaming going on, all from Rory. Silly boy wasn’t sure if what he was doing was the right thing but Max stayed on his back until he was allowed back up. After that, Max went to a corner and collected his thoughts. He allowed Chu to stay with him. The next intro was later in the evening. I’m so glad I put them together on my bed… Max was a changed rat. That flip was all he needed. Max is no longer tense or worried. He allows the girls to mount him, play with him, even grab his face. He and Rory had a good nap in the cube. My heart melted… we will soon be moving the 6 in together. But we can’t rush things, that’s when accidents happen and that can cause quite a set back. A few more intros are still needed.