Lily was my first rat of my current 3 and I had her alone for a couple months since I bought her pregnant (didn't know) and I didn't want to stress her more by introducing another rat. She always gets played with and has bonded to me tremendously (more to me than my husband) and the other day I was giving a rat massage to Naomi during free roam time in an effort to get her more comfortable around me and me touching/handling her. Lily saw me petting Naomi and ran up to me and nipped my hand that was petting Naomi. She didn't draw blood nor did she intend to but she did want me to divert my attention to her. Can rats get jealous if they aren't getting attention and another one is? I know it may sound silly but I'm curious as this is my first time owning a group of rats.
Jealousy?
- Thread starter LilysMom
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jorats
Loving rats since 2002.
I feel like they get territorial with their humans so I guess ya, jealousy when paying attention to another rat. Best to stop that though, don't allow her to nip you or claim you. It is cute though knowing she's bonded strongly with you.
temblabamomo
Senior Member
My first two boys, and another recent pair, were like that, only the aggression and nipping was towards the other rat, not at me. Sashi would come galloping over anytime he saw me paying attention to Barnaby. He'd jump on Barnaby, pin him, and try to chase him off, then take his place in His Human's lap. He would tolerate Barnaby sharing lap space, but only if he had first dibs.
Obie was like that too if I spent too much time loving on Quinn. Obie would come over and sort of try to nudge my hand out of the way and herd off Quinn. I didn't tolerate that, if Obie got too annoying and was really interfering with me paying attention to Quinn, I'd put Obie back in the cage for a bit. Other times, things were opposite. Obie seemed to want me to leave Quinn alone so that he (Obie) could be the one to groom Quinn. I'm Obie's person, and Quinn was Obie's rat...I guess basically Obie is of the opinion that every rat and person he meets is his own personal property, and he gets very possessive sometimes :giggle:
Obie was like that too if I spent too much time loving on Quinn. Obie would come over and sort of try to nudge my hand out of the way and herd off Quinn. I didn't tolerate that, if Obie got too annoying and was really interfering with me paying attention to Quinn, I'd put Obie back in the cage for a bit. Other times, things were opposite. Obie seemed to want me to leave Quinn alone so that he (Obie) could be the one to groom Quinn. I'm Obie's person, and Quinn was Obie's rat...I guess basically Obie is of the opinion that every rat and person he meets is his own personal property, and he gets very possessive sometimes :giggle:
