Playing or Fighting?

[Red]

So I've had my little ladies together since Sunday (for 5 days) and I have not seen one problem with their interactions at all! They got along perfectly, or so it seemed. They would sleep together and come out and play together.

I cleaned out their cage yesterday and decided to add a Kleenex box so that they would have more places to hide/ something else to chew on. When I put them back in their cage, Ella went into the wooden house we had in their previously, and Daisy went right over to the Kleenex box and started making her bed there.

Things seemed alright last night, but when I checked on them after school today they were sleeping apart! I tried to take them out to play with me but only Ella seemed interested, Daisy was plastered against the back wall of her box..

When I went to put Ella back in and tried to coax Daisy out to say hi, Daisy started (for lack of a better descriptor) twitching her head like a crazy rat and lunged at Ella. I stuck my hand in and separated them but they wound up "fighting" at least 5 more times and Daisy continues to act strange..

I am worried to put Ella back in, but I don't have another cage for her to go in and I need to head off to work soon..

So I'm wondering, do you guys think this is normal? Or should I invest in another cage and separate these two.. I know it's early on in their relationship and I'm probably overreacting.. But I can't help it! These lovelies have already found their way into my heart :heart:

 

[jorats]

How old are your girls now?

Rats will always go through little tiffs. If there's no blood, I wouldn't be too worried.

 

[Aida]

Rats need to set up a hierarchy in their cage, meaning that one will be the "alpha", and the others will follow. Sometimes one is the more dominant one for it's whole life, but sometimes it switches around every week. Either way, they have little "fights" to settle this(pushing one another over, jumping on each other, etc.)

As long as there is no blood, everything should be fine. They might squeak a bit, but that is also normal.

 

The rat tiffing rule of thumb is "no blood, no foul". So as long as no one's bleeding, things will work out. Jorats is right, fighting is normal. As long as there was no puffing up of the fur or hissing, you're good. My girls used to tiff all of the time, just play fighting really. With my girls there never really was a need to break anything up, and I don't think they really have an alpaha between them, they just roll equally it seems.

Also, don't worry about them not sleeping together. One of my girls likes to sleep up high, in a shoebox on the shelf of my CN, and the other likes to sleep under the towel that lines their cage. Sometimes they sleep together, but they do take naps together and things, it's just that their fixed sleeping places are different, so I don't worry about it.

 

[EDK]

If there's not wounds or blood, or seeing fur fly when they fight, I wouldn't worry too much. Sometimes it can look like fighting but it could be really rough play, and alot of squeaking but there's not really any harm being done. My alpha boy Gizmo does this alot with Gyro, constantly dominanting him, only because Gyro seems persistent in challenging Gizmo for alpha ranks. The two clash every now and then and they have both been neutered. One thing I noticed when they "fight" is that its mostly alot of rough grooming, pinning one or the other down on their back and rough grooming their faces or neck, with the occassional pulling cheek fur out, Gizmo on Gyro anyway.

They never make each other bleed, it usually is alot of squeaking though, mostly from Gyro, he's a drama king lol. I do know that once the dispute is resolved, i could always find them sharing a hammock with each other after only a few moments of the fight! lol

 

[Red]

Thank you all for your responses! I guess I was just overreacting :emb: At least I now have this information for the future :giggle:

And I'm not sure exactly how old they are but they are still little babies

 

[jorats]

If they are under 3 months old, then I can almost guaranty that they are not fighting. Babies play like crazy!

 

[EDK]

Lol you telling me? My girls are still about 4months old if not under, and they play play play and oh yes PLAYS SOME MORE, especially with my 1yr old boys! They love nothing more then flipping Nes, my 1yr, nearly 1pound, white/beige boy onto his back and climb all over him! I hope one day I get that on camera :laugh4:

 

[Red]

Ah yes I feel stupid for not realizing that they were just playing!! It is so cute to watch them too who would have thought that one minute I was worried for their safety and the next I was secretly urging for them to play more! Crazy

And one final question, is it normal for young rats to make cooing/ squeaking noises even when they're not playing? Cinderella has been making them all day..

 

[hopefloats]

I have a truck load of babies here right now and I can tell you I have had rats and bunch of large groups and sometimes when they play it looks like they will rip their limbs off of each other. It can be easy to mix up sometimes depending on how hard the rats play.

 

[EDK]

cooing? if you mean sneezing and they or one has been doing it all day, might wanna get that checked out with the vet to make sure its not a URI, rats are common to getting those and sneezing is the first sign of it, and if its constant like you said, defiently get it checked out.

 

[jorats]

Cooing like a pigeon? No, it's not normal. If it continues for a few more days, it might be time to get their lungs checked out.

 

[Red]

Thanks guys, I will look into taking her to a vet! I haven't heard it at all this morning.. but they have been sleeping so maybe that's why? Hopefully it was just a one time thing!