pscychopomp
Well-Known Member
So I introed the 2 new boys and the 1 girl to their respective new cage mates. My boys are getting along famously, there was very minor trouble. The girls though are not so perfect. Thora, who is super sweet, never behaved bad and accepted Sassafrass right away back when I got her at Christmas, is now being a little biotch to the new girl. Sassafrass is as well, but she's gotten better. Oddly Freya has been fine with her, she's usually the meanie. The thing is they all sleep together in their basket just fine 99% of the time, but once the new one tries to go elsewhere, specifically the bottom of the cage (the basket hangs from the top of the cage), Thora beats her up. She'll make a "fth fth" sound towards her, and do the side stepping, then usually a rat ball occurs after, and the little one runs away to the basket. Tuesday last week is when I fully cleaned the cage and put them together. On Thursday I had to leave for 2 days, Thora and Sassafrass were both picking on her that morning, and since I don't fully trust my mom to look after them properly I put those two into another cage while I was gone...for her safety, and also in hopes that the cage wouldn't seem so much their territory anymore. Well it didn't do a whole lot, they still pick on her. I don't get it...the three of them are in the basket right now, sleeping. Except for a little blood on her ear in the beginning, I haven't seen any injuries on her, so they aren't being too violent. Thora has never been the dominant rat, so I don't know if this is a dominance thing, or if she just doesn't like her for some reason. Is this temporary?
