porcupine girl

fleecywonder · Jan 25, 2013

What do I do about an adult female rat that puffs up like a porcupine at the sight/smell of baby girls? She's obviously very jeleous and doesn't want them anywhere near her, I tried to do introductions last night and she beat up on one of the babies grabbing her by the scruff and dragging her around I've *NEVER* had a female be so rough or had such a problem being introduced to new babies. HELP.

No I didn't do the intros on neutral territory I did it on my bed where the older female Harold is used to coming out for play time but that's what I've done in the past with other females and they've just plain never had a problem, been glad for company in fact!

SQ · Jan 25, 2013

She is showing signs of aggression (puffed up fur)
You need to have the cages near one another (but far enough apart that they can not reach the other cage if they reach through the bars) and exchange cloths in the cages so that she get used to them and their smell.
Once she is consistently ok with that a few times, then ypu can take it to the next step amd try neutral territory intros.

Sounds like you have been very lucky with previous intros, that is not the way they usually go.
How old are the babies?
How old is your adult girl?

jorats · Jan 25, 2013

Definitely move your intros to neutral ground. The yanking and dragging a baby with her is not exactly aggression. Her puffiness could also indicate stress.
How old are the babies?

fleecywonder · Jan 26, 2013

The female is about a year old and the babies I'm not sure they came from a petstore but I'm guessing around 8-10weeks

victoria · Jan 26, 2013

Some females are very territorial but they usually come around with proper intros. Move to neutral ground and if that doesn't work, do 'scary' intros then move to neutral ground.

fleecywonder · Jan 30, 2013

I did a few 'scary' intros in the bathtub, without water - she did fine lots of sniffing but I kept giving her treats to divert her adn she did fine moved the intros back to my bed and she bit Pixie one of the babies so hard she drew blood an pulled out a mouthful of hair she cornered her and was tearing at her fur and skin. She was not puffed up at the time.