Pooping EVERYWHERE

[ThreeFor]

When one of my rats passed away, the two that remained were fighting and will always bicker and fight. Now, I know this is normal with them being male rats but before the other one passed I'd watch him get up out of his hammock and go all the way down to the bottom to poop, and then back up.

When I had just two of them it'd be the same thing, then I got three and problems stopped.. Is this normal? is two too much of a dominance thing?

Also, I'm adopting two more family members on Monday. Patch and Bowie

 

[lilspaz68]

When one of my rats passed away, the two that remained were fighting and will always bicker and fight. Now, I know this is normal with them being male rats but before the other one passed I'd watch him get up out of his hammock and go all the way down to the bottom to poop, and then back up.

When I had just two of them it'd be the same thing, then I got three and problems stopped.. Is this normal? is two too much of a dominance thing?

Also, I'm adopting two more family members on Monday. Patch and Bowie

I am kinda confused on what you are asking? Are the 2 remaining males pooping everywhere and not going to the bottom ? Or are the 2 remaining rats bickering? If it's the latter question, its very normal for the remaining rats to fight for a higher rank once a rat leaves the colony. How old are your boys, how old are the newcomers? How do you plan on introducing them?

 

[jorats]

It could be the two are vying for top position and by pooping they are claiming the area, that should stop once they have made the decision of who is top banana.

CongRATS! on your new additions. :thumbsup:

 

[dspch911]

I'm confused on the question too. However, I had a cage of 5 and in October we had to put two down do to illiness - one being the cage alpha. Now the rat I thought would become the alpha has become the one that gets beat up on by the rat that I never would of thought would of become the alpha because he was always the scary skittish one. This colony has really had no harmony since they lost their two cage mages. Mr. Bumbles the shy skittish one has become the alpha and aggressive to Kona who I always thought was more the alpha.

 

[ThreeFor]

I'm going to introduce them the same way I've introduced my previous one.

1) Clean Cage
2) Bathe all of them together
3) Play Time
4) Put them all back in the cage

This has worked for me, is there a better way to do it? It's worked since I got all my three (now two) rats at separate times.

Yes, I figured that since there was 3 of them.. one was dominant and that's how it was..

My question is why do they poop everywhere? It's like everywhere but the litter.

Also, I notice they bicker and fight (not too rough but not playing either) and I think it's because there is two and a huge power struggle.

I'm planning to litter train all of them once they are here.. and all of them are under a year old.. so I'm hoping that'll help too!

 

[dspch911]

I'm not very good at intros so I'll leave that for someone else. I have however, not had to much problem with the liter training. We have DCN cages and I put 3 liter pans in them and most the time they poop in them, but never always. We spoon scoop the poop and place it into the liter pans to try and remind them. Our new little boys seem to have an issue with it..... and poop everywhere.

 

[Joanne]

Find where they like to poop the most, and put litter boxes in those spots. Not too high of a step to get into the box, it's gotta be easy! And then as was said, gather up the poop on a regular basis and put it in the box.