Rat Psych 101: Dealing with a depressed singleton

[Joanne]

Awwww, poor fella. Maybe continue with play dates for a few weeks, getting them together on a daily basis with no squabbling. Obviously it's going to challenge your patience, but remember, there is no time limit! I hope he heals up without any sequelae.

 

[DadRat]

awww, sorry to hear there has been another nasty scuffle Does Gregory ever start them/hurt the others?

He only starts by being anxious and panicking then going defensive, which usually sparks aggression in the other rat.

We haven't found any serious wounds on the girls to date, it seems their being smaller and more agile than the starting HED boy just means he takes all the serious damage.

 

[MomRat]

David beat me to it. =/ The gash on the back of Greg's neck does not look like the previous wounds, its definitely not a whoops cut myself on your teeth squirming the wrong way... its deep and ugly. I'm so mad at myself right now, for projecting my worries at Gregory being lonely, when I felt that three days of no fighting wasn't nearly enough. And now he's injured for our impatience. They were only together in the whole CN for less than 5 hours. Jayden looks fine...

And no, Gregory doesn't start it. He just snaps when they intrude into his personal space bubble for too long, too frequently, too aggressively.

 

[Godmother]

Must be so frustrating. You sound very patient, indeed, but this is a tough intro.

 

[MomRat]

What would cause intros to go backwards? I know its a difficult intro, but when do you decide to give up? First week, no fights, and it's just gone downhill. No out time occurs without a fight. Now, its not just Jayden huffing and puffing at Gregory, its Nimmel, too. And while Luna hasn't huffed or puffed, she has been involved with scuffles with him now. Gregory is constantly shedding scabs from Somewhere on himself, and is in a near-constant state of panic when we get him out on the couch with the girls, constantly looking for somewhere to hide, and being run out by the girls - the only time I've seen him calm, OUTside the cage, recently, is dropping him on our bed in the morning by himself. We can't even cage swap - tried it for 48 hours, he hid inbetween layers in a chewed cube and wouldn't come out, he was so terrified by being in a cage that smelled like them.

 

[jorats]

At this point, I'd go back a step, so back to neutral ground. Any chance you can take a video of the intro?
What do the scabs look like? long or small and where are they located, this will help determine if they are intentional bites. Could the rats have mites/lice? That will make everyone grumpy.

 

[MomRat]

It's not mite/lice scabbing, we've dealt with that before, and all our new girls were treated before adoption. The scabs are all over his back, and range from 1/2cm to almost an inch. We had the one nasty bite on the back of his neck. We've BEEN doing neutral territory, I suppose there are LESS fights in the tub, but its not fun when all the time we have dedicated to getting the rats out involves sitting in the bathroom floor, watching like a hawk to make Jayden back off. We alternate tub with bed and couch(where we can let them out practically all day, if we have work to do on our computers), all of which have been used enough that they are more or less familiar territory for everyone. I'm not willing to do a wet tub intro, Gregory's already way too stressed out.

 

[Joanne]

I think you will have to make the decision when it is just too much for Gregory and call it quits. It's great to have the rats all together, but if it is causing him that much stress, is it really worth it? My latest intros weren't great, and took a long time (a couple of months), but things still improved on a regular basis. He may be happier without contact with the girls.

 

[jorats]

Sounds like you need a break. Hold off for a few weeks, and if things feel better at some point you could give it a try again.