megan123
Well-Known Member
Okay so I will explain the story behind all of this. Its sort of long.
Basically, I had two rats, Meatball and Biscuit. Meatball was the bully, slightly more rat aggressive one and Biscuit was a huge pansy pushover. I had done intros trying to intro a third male into a group with those two and Biscuit accepted him right away and Meatball never did.
Meatball passed away and I was looking for a second male rat to keep Biscuit company. I took in Carl, who Lilspaz wanted but couldn't take at the time.
I did about a month of just cage switches and having the cages next to each other. Then I started neutral territory intros. I use chocolate sauce in the shower or bath, and Carl stays fairly occupied the whole time and Biscuit does "drive bys", where he runs up behind Carl, puts his feet on his back or licks his back, and then runs away. Otherwise he spends the whole time trying to escape the bath. The one time they fought was when I tried intros without food and Carl had nothing to occupy him. And the past couple days things have been more dicey because I ran out of chocolate sauce and tried using a substitute and Carl doesn't like it as much. On these days, Biscuit will do fewer drive bys and seems extremely nervous. He gets poofy (every time pretty much).
They both will huff at each other and Carl will make an angry sort of clicking sound. From what I can read from it, Biscuit's behavior seems more nervous than hormonal/angry. And just from knowing Biscuit and knowing how big of a pushover he is, I can imagine him choosing to be the aggressor in the situation. It is harder for me to read Carl because I don't know him and he is hairless. But he seems to send some sort of signal when Biscuit gets close that makes Bisc super nervous, if that makes sense.
Anyways. Advice needed.
Basically, I had two rats, Meatball and Biscuit. Meatball was the bully, slightly more rat aggressive one and Biscuit was a huge pansy pushover. I had done intros trying to intro a third male into a group with those two and Biscuit accepted him right away and Meatball never did.
Meatball passed away and I was looking for a second male rat to keep Biscuit company. I took in Carl, who Lilspaz wanted but couldn't take at the time.
I did about a month of just cage switches and having the cages next to each other. Then I started neutral territory intros. I use chocolate sauce in the shower or bath, and Carl stays fairly occupied the whole time and Biscuit does "drive bys", where he runs up behind Carl, puts his feet on his back or licks his back, and then runs away. Otherwise he spends the whole time trying to escape the bath. The one time they fought was when I tried intros without food and Carl had nothing to occupy him. And the past couple days things have been more dicey because I ran out of chocolate sauce and tried using a substitute and Carl doesn't like it as much. On these days, Biscuit will do fewer drive bys and seems extremely nervous. He gets poofy (every time pretty much).
They both will huff at each other and Carl will make an angry sort of clicking sound. From what I can read from it, Biscuit's behavior seems more nervous than hormonal/angry. And just from knowing Biscuit and knowing how big of a pushover he is, I can imagine him choosing to be the aggressor in the situation. It is harder for me to read Carl because I don't know him and he is hairless. But he seems to send some sort of signal when Biscuit gets close that makes Bisc super nervous, if that makes sense.
Anyways. Advice needed.
