Intro, odd behaviour

[jorats]

With intro steps, the last step is in the play area. If all goes well in the play area for a few hours, then it's time to scrub down the cage and add them all in together but if this worries you, you can definitely try the steps you mentioned, any one of them, meet up on the bed, stay in the cage together during the day while you are there.

 

[Ttt]

The two little ones have finally spent the last two nights in the cage with the group and no one has gotten mad at them for being there. But there's another issue with my alpha now..

The previous alpha had started getting food aggressive when the other rats came near while he was eating and apparently this is something the current alpha has picked up.

When he is eating his lab blocks and another rat gets close he'll pounce at him and sidle toward him. This pretty much always happens when he is eating his lab blocks and rarely happens when he is eating something else.

The two new little ones don't know they're not supposed to come close when he eats so they get very scared when he gets mad and I'm nervous he'll hurt them. He hasn't hurt anyone as far as I've seen but I'm not sure if he would if things escalated and everyone in the cage is a bit on edge around him because of this food aggression.

Is there a way to teach the alpha that he doesn't need to be aggressive about food?

 

[jorats]

I had a male who did this as well. What I did was each time I filled the bowl with food, I would pull the bully out and hold him while all the other rats would go eat. I held him near the cage so he could hear and smell what was going on. After about 5 to 10 minutes, I would put him in another section of the cage with a handful of blocks just for him. I always put blocks in multiple places in the cage, even hiding them in some places so it gave them a chance to use their foraging capabilities and their sense of smell. Each time my bully was being a jerk, I would pull him out of the cage and put him into a small care, very tiny cage with nothing in it. No food, no water, no toys, no bedding. I kept him in there for no more than 10 minutes each time. After about 2 weeks to a month of this, he completely stopped.
Your babies will soon grow up and learn what they can and can't do. I'm sure they will understand the rules of the cage soon enough and be ok with it.