Oh man, it started when one morning I went to check on my rats and found Peter sitting on top of the cage, the door to his part wide open. The door to the rat room was open too, so I'm really glad they were both still in there (Albus was still hanging out in the hammock), especially since who knows how long they'd been free.
Yesterday though was much worse. I have my four boys separated into two pairs because Peter has an aggression problem but is fine with his extremely chilled out littermate, and Peter's neuter was scheduled but cancelled when we found out our dog needed surgery, and then we moved which was expensive...anyway, last night I had Albus (Peter's cagemate) in the living room with us, on the couch. Peter was supposed to be free ranging alone in the rat room, but then I heard a rat scream and a bit of a clang, like something hitting/moving their cage. I went to check, worried that Peter and Fred were fighting between the cage, but they were both out, and Peter was chasing Fred (I assume, I was really just focused on catching Fred, since Peter was the puffball and bit my boyfriend pretty badly when he tried to grab Peter mid-fight). Poor Fred has a bunch of bite wounds AGAIN, though at least none are serious.
Lately we have a camera that monitors the rat cage (My boyfriend had to bring home a sample for his job, so it seemed like the best use), and so I watch them a lot, and we've noticed that Peter spends a ton of time climbing the cage and "talking" to Fred through the bars. There is no puffiness or meanness.
I am pretty sure Peter has figured out how to open the cage if it isn't locked...my cage has latches that latch and then push in to lock. I just need to remember to keep pushing it in. Before I bought it I read a lot of ferret owners saying their ferrets figured out the latch so they had to remember to lock it, and one rat owner saying it, but I kind of thought they were crazy, the latch is pretty heavy. Whoops.
The first time I thought it was my fault, but twice in a couple days, no way. The second time I'd even seen the cage was closed on the camera monitor, and 5 minutes later it was open. CRAZY.
This just makes me think "another example of why you should never keep mixed sexes together" because that would have been so much worse. It is another example of poor Fred getting all the injuries (I just posted a thread about him being accident prone). And it is another example of rats being smarter than people think.
Yesterday though was much worse. I have my four boys separated into two pairs because Peter has an aggression problem but is fine with his extremely chilled out littermate, and Peter's neuter was scheduled but cancelled when we found out our dog needed surgery, and then we moved which was expensive...anyway, last night I had Albus (Peter's cagemate) in the living room with us, on the couch. Peter was supposed to be free ranging alone in the rat room, but then I heard a rat scream and a bit of a clang, like something hitting/moving their cage. I went to check, worried that Peter and Fred were fighting between the cage, but they were both out, and Peter was chasing Fred (I assume, I was really just focused on catching Fred, since Peter was the puffball and bit my boyfriend pretty badly when he tried to grab Peter mid-fight). Poor Fred has a bunch of bite wounds AGAIN, though at least none are serious.
Lately we have a camera that monitors the rat cage (My boyfriend had to bring home a sample for his job, so it seemed like the best use), and so I watch them a lot, and we've noticed that Peter spends a ton of time climbing the cage and "talking" to Fred through the bars. There is no puffiness or meanness.
I am pretty sure Peter has figured out how to open the cage if it isn't locked...my cage has latches that latch and then push in to lock. I just need to remember to keep pushing it in. Before I bought it I read a lot of ferret owners saying their ferrets figured out the latch so they had to remember to lock it, and one rat owner saying it, but I kind of thought they were crazy, the latch is pretty heavy. Whoops.
The first time I thought it was my fault, but twice in a couple days, no way. The second time I'd even seen the cage was closed on the camera monitor, and 5 minutes later it was open. CRAZY.
This just makes me think "another example of why you should never keep mixed sexes together" because that would have been so much worse. It is another example of poor Fred getting all the injuries (I just posted a thread about him being accident prone). And it is another example of rats being smarter than people think.
