OhRatz!
New Member
I'm looking for advice as to how to re-introduce my rats. Here's my situation..
I have a pair of brothers, Attis and Abner, whom I've had since June of last year. They are 13 months old. They live in a large Critter Nation cage. They were well socialized from the beginning as the cage sits right in my livingroom and they get lots of attention from myself, my friends and family.
Then I adopted Pierre in the Fall of last year. He was already 5 months old when I took him home. He'd originally been purchased for snake food but ended up in a small feeder cage for the first 5 months of his life. The person who owned Pierre, handled him frequently and was very kind to him. I begged this person to let me have Pierre because I had tons of room in the cage and my boys were the same age, etc.
So, I googled and youtubed 'rat intros' to get some sort of direction for properly introducing the rats together. Actually, this is also how I found jorats' videos. Love them!..and I look forward to the new uploads btw.
Anyway, I followed the directions and cleaned the cage entirely, closed off the top section from the bottom, set up Pierre's section then put them all in their separate spaces.
After a few days, we set up our spare bedroom for a neutral meeting.
It took them a few minutes to notice eachother as they were busy scoping out the territory. Abner didn't seem bothered by Pierre. Attis stood on his hind legs and Pierre did, too. All of a sudden they were wrestling. I threw a towel over them and that sort of broke them up. We tried again but they were really poofy and didn't seem like they were going to relax. Attis was a little scratched up from Pierre's nails. We decided to keep them separate for awhile. A couple of days later, I heard this horrendous scream. It appeared that Abner's tail was bitten. A few days later it was Attis. I (the inexperienced first time rat owner) didn't know it would be simple for Pierre to grab a tail, dangling from above and bite it. Once the tails were looked after and healed, I thought I'd give it a few weeks and try again. So, I made some changes to the cage so Pierre couldn't grab their tails.
Here it is many months later and Pierre is still living apart from the other boys. Occasionally, I'll hold Pierre up to the cage in front of Attis & Abner and none of them appear to look threatened or poofy in any way. The thing is, I've been too scared to try an intro again in case they get into a scuffle. I pay a lot of attention to Pierre because he doesn't have a companion. He spends a lot of time outside the cage on my shoulder. Attis and Abner will no longer even let me pick them up. They've become somewhat skittish. I feel terrible about this. Is it because they know Pierre lives in the "basement"? Are they jealous? Should I keep them separate forever or try again? Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks!
I have a pair of brothers, Attis and Abner, whom I've had since June of last year. They are 13 months old. They live in a large Critter Nation cage. They were well socialized from the beginning as the cage sits right in my livingroom and they get lots of attention from myself, my friends and family.
Then I adopted Pierre in the Fall of last year. He was already 5 months old when I took him home. He'd originally been purchased for snake food but ended up in a small feeder cage for the first 5 months of his life. The person who owned Pierre, handled him frequently and was very kind to him. I begged this person to let me have Pierre because I had tons of room in the cage and my boys were the same age, etc.
So, I googled and youtubed 'rat intros' to get some sort of direction for properly introducing the rats together. Actually, this is also how I found jorats' videos. Love them!..and I look forward to the new uploads btw.
Anyway, I followed the directions and cleaned the cage entirely, closed off the top section from the bottom, set up Pierre's section then put them all in their separate spaces.
After a few days, we set up our spare bedroom for a neutral meeting.
It took them a few minutes to notice eachother as they were busy scoping out the territory. Abner didn't seem bothered by Pierre. Attis stood on his hind legs and Pierre did, too. All of a sudden they were wrestling. I threw a towel over them and that sort of broke them up. We tried again but they were really poofy and didn't seem like they were going to relax. Attis was a little scratched up from Pierre's nails. We decided to keep them separate for awhile. A couple of days later, I heard this horrendous scream. It appeared that Abner's tail was bitten. A few days later it was Attis. I (the inexperienced first time rat owner) didn't know it would be simple for Pierre to grab a tail, dangling from above and bite it. Once the tails were looked after and healed, I thought I'd give it a few weeks and try again. So, I made some changes to the cage so Pierre couldn't grab their tails.
Here it is many months later and Pierre is still living apart from the other boys. Occasionally, I'll hold Pierre up to the cage in front of Attis & Abner and none of them appear to look threatened or poofy in any way. The thing is, I've been too scared to try an intro again in case they get into a scuffle. I pay a lot of attention to Pierre because he doesn't have a companion. He spends a lot of time outside the cage on my shoulder. Attis and Abner will no longer even let me pick them up. They've become somewhat skittish. I feel terrible about this. Is it because they know Pierre lives in the "basement"? Are they jealous? Should I keep them separate forever or try again? Any advice would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks!
