Agressive Rat

[rattieperson7]

I rescued two rats that were previously used in labs, and I've run into some unexpected issues.

One of the rats wasn't very aggressive at first, with only occasional fights with his cagemate. However, after introducing them to my group of four, one became extremely aggressive. I thought it was normal fighting at first, but the rat ended up losing part of his tail in one of the fights, so I separated him.

I had him neutered and tried reintroducing him, but he remained very aggressive toward the others. He's not aggressive towards people, but I think he might need to be housed alone.

I've never had a rat like this before and I'm unsure what to do. I've reached out to a few rescues, but they won't take him because of his aggression. I'll be keeping him alone, but I'm not sure how to make sure he's happy. Any advice would be really helpful.

 

[Kye]

I rescued two rats that were previously used in labs, and I've run into some unexpected issues.

One of the rats wasn't very aggressive at first, with only occasional fights with his cagemate. However, after introducing them to my group of four, one became extremely aggressive. I thought it was normal fighting at first, but the rat ended up losing part of his tail in one of the fights, so I separated him.

I had him neutered and tried reintroducing him, but he remained very aggressive toward the others. He's not aggressive towards people, but I think he might need to be housed alone.

I've never had a rat like this before and I'm unsure what to do. I've reached out to a few rescues, but they won't take him because of his aggression. I'll be keeping him alone, but I'm not sure how to make sure he's happy. Any advice would be really helpful.

How long ago did you get him neutered? How(and where) did you attempt to introduce them? Did you happen to get a video of the behavior, if not can you possibly describe it before the fight broke out? I'm trying to get the whole picture so I can maybe help out.

 

[rattieperson7]

How long ago did you get him neutered? How(and where) did you attempt to introduce them? Did you happen to get a video of the behavior, if not can you possibly describe it before the fight broke out? I'm trying to get the whole picture so I can maybe help out.

I got him neutered about a month ago.

I introduced them with the neutral territory method in my bath tub. There was some treats and I put whipped cream on them to encourage them to groom. It only took a couple of minutes before they started fighting and I thought it was playful/good at first. Then one of my older rats started bleeding a lot from bites so I seperated them again.

I didn't get a video of the behavior before the fight. When they fight it normally starts with the other rat getting puffed up and sidling with my injured rat. It's hard to describe but it quickly turns into them running around the cage biting and pouncing on each other. They will run around the whole cage doing that and won't stop until I intervene. There have been a few times where the other rat leaves my injured one alone eventually but the injured one doesn't stop chasing them around and biting their tail, back or paws.