Loki and Templeton- alpha shift?

[hopefloats]

I have the crabby bottom boys out, they were neutered 17 days ago. I am sitting here watching loki, who never is a mean guy to the rats, he is generally the groomer and licker of the bunch. Tonight Loki and Templeton, are sitting here side stepping each other, puffed up like a couple of rats that have never met each other. Both of them are doing it, Loki is side stepping Mr. T and he is doing the same.

I noticed this morning, ludo had a bite mark on his back, so i am assuming it is ongoing with these guys. this is all new, they generally have gotten along since we did the intros. Which was months ago when al and ludo were babies. Loki and templeton are brother so they have had time to bond LOL.

Do they shift alpha's? or what is going on with my boys?

Loki is currently chasing templeton down the cage.....seriously i am bothered here lol

 

[hopefloats]

Now loki is rubbing on the lamp, I have never seen him do this either, it is always templeton and bindi who are the ones who rub around.

 

[jorats]

Has there been a change in the home? Have they been exposed to the girls a bit more or to the nakies?
Rats always do challenge the boss position but not to the point of rubbing and such. A new pet in the home?

 

[hopefloats]

they had 2 brief encounters with the hairless group but nothing long standing or that even lasted for more than a minute but not this day. My stress levels are through the roof the last few days. No new rats, none are really sick right now.

I have been noticing the change in them, loki was playing the other day and he is even grooming my fingers more. They are not the stress balls they were pre neuter. They have been getting more out-time on the couch with me, but nothing else has changed. I thought once an alpha was named, they didnt argue it lol

 

[hopefloats]

Bindi started rubbing alot, which made templeton rub the lamp more, but loki never has.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

This sounds kinda like what my sister went through after she had 2 of her boys (Cane and Caleb) neutered. A bit of back round to avoid this getting too confusing, Cane and Caleb are brothers living with Hawk and Hunter (brothers as well, intact) and Caleb was the alpha followed by Cane. About 1.5-2 weeks after the neuters all hell broke loose when Hawk decided to take over. Cane gave in willingly but Caleb fought for dear life which resulted in a nasty bite. To me it was almost like those last bit of hormones made Caleb even more dominant than he had been before but Hawk could sense him not being as "manly". It only took them about a week to work out their issues.

Not sure exactly what your cage situation is but if that sounds familiar then I might be able to offer some help to make the change smoother.

 

[hopefloats]

Lol that is pretty much identical. Tonight they were out with no problems at all. My two groups of boys live in different cages but share the play are at different time. I am hoping that the neuters kick in soon, so I can see the final change they changed more than I was expecting but you can tell they are kinda still grumpy boys. What did your sister do to deter some issues?

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

She found that taking Caleb (the neutered alpha) out of the cage and babying him when things hot heated between him and Hawk helped. Since hers got fairly serious (the nasty bite was in the groin area) she would flip and pin Hawk when he was on a rampage (sometimes even just placing your hand over the aggressors head will work) or even put him in a carrier for time out if the pinning didn't calm him down. Mostly I think her cuddling Caleb when he got too stressed helped him to let go of his dominance.