Hi there!
I've been watching two of my girls who are sisters, Lily and Iris, and for quite some time now, Lily has been mean to Iris, stealing all of her food stash, fabric, timothy hay, every last straw and grain of rice. Lily the 'bully' builds her 'nest' of paper and fabric and food and tissues and whatever she can get her hands on, on the top platform of the CN. Iris, her smaller and timid sister, has her house in a box on the main floor. I give them fabric, paper, tissues...and Iris pulls some into her house, and brings lab blocks and food in there. By the end of the day, Lily (who is huge and weighs twice of Iris) has 'pillaged' her house and taken it all away, even strands of timothy hay! :sad3: Poor Iris. Lily is like the grinch rat!
When I got them, they used to sleep together and Lily wasn't such a tubby. She's had two mammary tumour operations since then (she had a big one when I took them in), and now she's a hefty girl. They came from a house where there were no other rats. Now they live in the top half of a CN, two other girls live beneath them, two girls in a cage to their left about a foot and a half away, and two girls in a cage to the right, same distance away. Lily has become neurotic and protective of her cage and fusses at the bars in 'attack fuss mode' if I stand and talk to her. She is wary if put my hand near "HER nest" and would bite if I moved too fast and didn't announce my presence. She has also barbered her fur off of her wrists and she's barbered the fur quite a bit at the scar site for her surgeries. When she raids Iris's house and stash, Iris goes into the corner, faces the corner with her nose in, and sits there, still and sad, sometimes bruxing. I've learned over the past year I've had them that when she bruxes, it means she's anxious or worried. She also has started to barber her wrists, and she has porphyrin around one eye, which I attribute to the stress she feels living with her controlling, selfish and piggy sister.
I love them both, even the big bully Lily. What I'm wondering is how to get Lily to stop being such a mean sister? Iris has no friends to sleep with and she doesn't dare intrude on Lily's platform or steal her food back. She's a good weight so she's figured out how to get food back and eat when Lily is asleep. I often take Lily out and leave Iris for a while on her own, and she likes that because she eats and has the cage to herself without her mean sister ruining it for her. If there's a fight, it's because Iris has food Lily wants back. I don't want to separate them, but Iris is clearly not happy. Should I move their cage to another room so Lily can't see other rats and perhaps this will calm her down? When we adopted a baby rat a few weeks ago, Lily did a bit of 'chewing the bars' in the direction of the cage with baby Cleo. GAH!! Any advice??
I've been watching two of my girls who are sisters, Lily and Iris, and for quite some time now, Lily has been mean to Iris, stealing all of her food stash, fabric, timothy hay, every last straw and grain of rice. Lily the 'bully' builds her 'nest' of paper and fabric and food and tissues and whatever she can get her hands on, on the top platform of the CN. Iris, her smaller and timid sister, has her house in a box on the main floor. I give them fabric, paper, tissues...and Iris pulls some into her house, and brings lab blocks and food in there. By the end of the day, Lily (who is huge and weighs twice of Iris) has 'pillaged' her house and taken it all away, even strands of timothy hay! :sad3: Poor Iris. Lily is like the grinch rat!
When I got them, they used to sleep together and Lily wasn't such a tubby. She's had two mammary tumour operations since then (she had a big one when I took them in), and now she's a hefty girl. They came from a house where there were no other rats. Now they live in the top half of a CN, two other girls live beneath them, two girls in a cage to their left about a foot and a half away, and two girls in a cage to the right, same distance away. Lily has become neurotic and protective of her cage and fusses at the bars in 'attack fuss mode' if I stand and talk to her. She is wary if put my hand near "HER nest" and would bite if I moved too fast and didn't announce my presence. She has also barbered her fur off of her wrists and she's barbered the fur quite a bit at the scar site for her surgeries. When she raids Iris's house and stash, Iris goes into the corner, faces the corner with her nose in, and sits there, still and sad, sometimes bruxing. I've learned over the past year I've had them that when she bruxes, it means she's anxious or worried. She also has started to barber her wrists, and she has porphyrin around one eye, which I attribute to the stress she feels living with her controlling, selfish and piggy sister.
I love them both, even the big bully Lily. What I'm wondering is how to get Lily to stop being such a mean sister? Iris has no friends to sleep with and she doesn't dare intrude on Lily's platform or steal her food back. She's a good weight so she's figured out how to get food back and eat when Lily is asleep. I often take Lily out and leave Iris for a while on her own, and she likes that because she eats and has the cage to herself without her mean sister ruining it for her. If there's a fight, it's because Iris has food Lily wants back. I don't want to separate them, but Iris is clearly not happy. Should I move their cage to another room so Lily can't see other rats and perhaps this will calm her down? When we adopted a baby rat a few weeks ago, Lily did a bit of 'chewing the bars' in the direction of the cage with baby Cleo. GAH!! Any advice??
