Advice on what to do with my boys needed please.

[Narf]

Hi,
I’m sorry if this is really long winded but I’m very stressed about this situation.

I have 2 sets of brothers, the older set around 13 months and the younger set 7.

they were introduced to eachother after a period of Quarantine and for around 5 months they all lived together fine.

One of the younger ones, my only rex Nip is pretty blind and has always wound up the other boys but I wouldn’t say is aggressive and out of nowhere the older 2 would fluff up around him and get mad.

Then there was the first injury. Quite a bad gash underneath Nips back leg. I kept him separate in a hospital cage for a week to let it heal and let everyone calm down then put them all in a cleaned small cage to check everything was ok and they were fine. Then after 1 night and day in the main cage there was another scuffle and he got another bad gash on his shoulder so once again he was removed.

his brother gets on fine with the other 2 but he then got a bad infection and needed an op so I put him in the hospital cage with nip while he was being treated. Now I am just too scared to try and put them back together so I have the older set in my savic royal cage and the younger two in a single critter nation type cage.

is it possible to have a rat that just rubs the other up the wrong way? The older two are two old for it to be hormonal. Would neutering nip help the situation? Or am I best just keeping them in 2 pairs.

I have become very stressed and every squeak I’m expecting a blood bath. I want them all to be happy, even his brother now in the same cage gets fluffed up and annoyed at him every now and then but there has been no rat balls or bites.

is there a safe way to get my boys back together? They spend all day pretty much on free roam and so now I’ve had to set it up so the younger two are out downstairs and the older are out as normal in my room.

sorry if this is all confusing. I appreciate it if you’ve got this far.

TLDR: all of my rats seem to hate the one blind-ish rex. He’s had 2 bad gashes and I now have them living in two sets of 2 but would like to get them all back together.

 

[lilspaz68]

The older rats can definitely show hormonal behavior with 7 month olds. They often don't react to younger rats as they aren't considered a threat but once they reach puberty things can change. With the types of injuries I would suggest having 2 separate pairs and let them live happily together

 

[Narf]

The older rats can definitely show hormonal behavior with 7 month olds. They often don't react to younger rats as they aren't considered a threat but once they reach puberty things can change. With the types of injuries I would suggest having 2 separate pairs and let them live happily together

So keeping them as separate pairs is a fair decision then? I was worried that my doing so wasn’t the best thing and that something else could be done like neutering one of them. I was worried I was being selfish wanting to keep them selfish as although it’s harder work, I don’t think I would sleep well knowing he could get badly injured again.

do you think it would be a problem to covert the savic royal into 2 cages and have them living above eachother? Rather than 2 seperate large cages.

and will I be able to free roam them in the same space without it causing issues? I can tell they can smell eachother but they don’t act aggressive. It just seems strange that it’s always the blind rex That’s the ‘victim’ even though he does seem to wind them up.

thanks for your advice it’s much appreciated.

 

[lilspaz68]

its an absolutely fair decision. They just don't want to live together. I would put the more aggressive rats on top, as i've seen a tail fall through the bars from above and the aggressive bottom cage rat cause some serious injuries to them. Try it and see if they don't huff at each other all day and get stressed that way.

 

[Narf]

its an absolutely fair decision. They just don't want to live together. I would put the more aggressive rats on top, as i've seen a tail fall through the bars from above and the aggressive bottom cage rat cause some serious injuries to them. Try it and see if they don't huff at each other all day and get stressed that way.

thank you. I will give it a go next cage clean.