Help! biting and wounded

[shade]

I don't know what to do about my soon-to-be 10 month old boy Batty. As i've said before, he's very dominant and it's starting to show on my year old boys ben and quasar. I've been finding little bite marks all over the back of ben's neck and back along with a cluster of them just under the left side of his chin and now my newest addition, mouse is starting to get little nicks on his side and back. My boys never fought before we introduced batty so I'm assuming he's the culprit. Quasar has a few nips here and there but last night we just discovered a wound on his right side. It doesn't look new but it's not old. It's a small circle about 3/4 the size of his eye (if that's a good enough description) and it's dark red. I put some antibiotic ointment on it and separated batty from the cage for now but I don't know what to do. Should I be worried about this wound on quasar? I'm going to keep treating it with the ointment but it's hard to get at it with his fur. Should I possibly try shaving the area so it can be treated better? And after he heals what should I do about batty? He's really bad about dominating. We've tried the dominance pinching with him and we have to wear gloves when we do it because he completely flips out and squeaks and flips around like a maniac and we're not sure if he'd bite us or not for it.

I have a feeling it has a lot to do with the cage of girls adjacent to them but there's no where else to put their cage.

Someone help anic:

 

[Adrienne]

if he is that agressive i would get him Nutuared (Spelling) ASAP!!

 

[SQ]

If the girls are not spayed his hormones could be driving him nuts.
A neuter might solve your problem.

Another thought is that they might have mites or there may be another reason such as illness.

 

[lilspaz68]

The little scabs on the back, shoulders and especially chin are very likely to be mites, as SQ said.

Mites can drive a rat crazy and they can get irritable. You should probably start with treating all your rats for the mites and go on from there.

 

[jorats]

The location of those scabs is not from biting and fighting... it's from mites. Do a full mite/lice treatment. Which can cause Batty to be more aggressive.

Having the girls close by is absolutely a stress factor on all the boys.

 

[ryelle]

Mites ring a bell for me too on this one. The rats get red scabs all over the back of their neck, shoulders and under the chin mostly. If they have 'wounds' on them too, its probably from scratching. Maybe you should trim their nails a tiny bit aswell as treating for mites?

My guys were playing it a bit rough before and Sid ended up with inch long scratches all over his back and his sides that broke the skin. Once you've seen mite marks on a rat you will always be able to tell them again

 

[shade]

Wow that makes so much sense. With closer examination those bite marks look like tiny circles.My rats are always itching but I thought it might be fleas because of our dogs. What would I need to treat for mites? The only shampoo I have that I can use on them is the baby lavender. Would canine flea and tick shampoo work with them? like a real small small ammount?

 

[SQ]

Get cat or kitten revolution from the vet.
The amount they get is based on the strength of the revolution and the rat's weight.
It is basically a drop on the skin on the back of their neck.

If the dogs have fleas, hope you treat them too ... revolution for dogs would do that.

 

[shade]

alright thanks. And yeah we treat the dogs, but since there are so many they have worn down some of the grass in the backyard leaving a lot of sand, perfect for those pesky fleas. We're in the process of planing more grass seed right now.

 

[Fidget]

I was looking to link you to a post here about how to handle mites from start-til-end cause I know there is a good info guide on everything here, but couldn't find one on that. Maybe someone else knows where it is?