I have three 9 month old boys, Tyrion, Dexter and Milo. Tyrion is the dominant one, Dexter is the smallest and Milo is the biggest. Tyrion and Dexter are brothers, Milo is 4 days older but they've been together since they were babies.
A week or so ago during the daytime, Tyrion fluffed up all his fur and started attacking his cagemates. Dexter was hiding in their sputnik and Milo was in a tube so Tyrion couldnt really get at them. He settled down after an hour or so and all was calm and normal so i thought it was a one off. The next day i noticed a small bite on Milo's tail.
On sunday (august 11th) i was woken up at 6am by screaming in the cage, Tyrion was all fluffed up again and started attacking the others. He had cornered Milo in their plastic igloo and was hitting him with the side of his bum and kicking him with his back leg (im sure you know the move i mean!), then fur started flying and there was a terrible shriek, i grabbed Tyrion out of the cage and stored him in their vet crate so i could check Milo out, he had a huge gash across the back of his neck (only a surface wound thankfully), i didnt know what to do, so i kept them separated. Tyrion was left in the vet crate and the others stayed in the cage. After a while, Tyrion had almost chewed his way out of the crate so i separated the top section of their cage from the bottom and put Tyrion in there. I left them all until about 1:30pm that day, at which point i decided to put them back together on neutral ground (our shower cubicle) and they were all fine, they cuddled up together and started falling asleep. While they were out i put an extra bowl of food in the cage because i thought that could be the problem, and moved everything around plus put a new toy in for them. Everything has been fine until today....
This morning i was woken up again, at 4:30am by screaming, i saw Tyrion JUMP at Milo from across the cage, when i got Tyrion out his mouth was covered in blood. Again i put him in the crate while i checked the other two over, Milo has another small wound on his back that was bleeding a little, Dexter was unharmed. I separated the cage again and have only just put them in the shower cubicle together (its 4pm), again, they're all fine now like nothing ever happened.
Im at a total loss of what to do. I dont want to keep them separated but i dont want them hurt either, Dexter and Milo are absolutely terrified when Tyrion goes on the attack. They're all on treatment for URI's so i dont want them stressed at all, i just dont know whats causing the aggression, its always unprovoked as far as i can tell. Tyrion was aggressive towards me when he was young, i have a few scars on my hands from bites, but he's grown out of that now, and he's still not aggressive towards me at all. With previous rats that kept having dominance issues i used to rub food flavourings into their fur to try and calm the hormonal smells a bit, which seemed to work, so im going to try that with these boys too but i dont know how effective it will be. I dont think he is intentionally injuring, but i cant be sure. They've had the usual tussles for dominance, but never this extreme.
Im aware a neuter may be the best solution, and its been on my mind for a while, but im not willing to risk him going under anaesthetic while he has resp. issues.
If anyone can offer any advice i would be very grateful, thanks.
A week or so ago during the daytime, Tyrion fluffed up all his fur and started attacking his cagemates. Dexter was hiding in their sputnik and Milo was in a tube so Tyrion couldnt really get at them. He settled down after an hour or so and all was calm and normal so i thought it was a one off. The next day i noticed a small bite on Milo's tail.
On sunday (august 11th) i was woken up at 6am by screaming in the cage, Tyrion was all fluffed up again and started attacking the others. He had cornered Milo in their plastic igloo and was hitting him with the side of his bum and kicking him with his back leg (im sure you know the move i mean!), then fur started flying and there was a terrible shriek, i grabbed Tyrion out of the cage and stored him in their vet crate so i could check Milo out, he had a huge gash across the back of his neck (only a surface wound thankfully), i didnt know what to do, so i kept them separated. Tyrion was left in the vet crate and the others stayed in the cage. After a while, Tyrion had almost chewed his way out of the crate so i separated the top section of their cage from the bottom and put Tyrion in there. I left them all until about 1:30pm that day, at which point i decided to put them back together on neutral ground (our shower cubicle) and they were all fine, they cuddled up together and started falling asleep. While they were out i put an extra bowl of food in the cage because i thought that could be the problem, and moved everything around plus put a new toy in for them. Everything has been fine until today....
This morning i was woken up again, at 4:30am by screaming, i saw Tyrion JUMP at Milo from across the cage, when i got Tyrion out his mouth was covered in blood. Again i put him in the crate while i checked the other two over, Milo has another small wound on his back that was bleeding a little, Dexter was unharmed. I separated the cage again and have only just put them in the shower cubicle together (its 4pm), again, they're all fine now like nothing ever happened.
Im at a total loss of what to do. I dont want to keep them separated but i dont want them hurt either, Dexter and Milo are absolutely terrified when Tyrion goes on the attack. They're all on treatment for URI's so i dont want them stressed at all, i just dont know whats causing the aggression, its always unprovoked as far as i can tell. Tyrion was aggressive towards me when he was young, i have a few scars on my hands from bites, but he's grown out of that now, and he's still not aggressive towards me at all. With previous rats that kept having dominance issues i used to rub food flavourings into their fur to try and calm the hormonal smells a bit, which seemed to work, so im going to try that with these boys too but i dont know how effective it will be. I dont think he is intentionally injuring, but i cant be sure. They've had the usual tussles for dominance, but never this extreme.
Im aware a neuter may be the best solution, and its been on my mind for a while, but im not willing to risk him going under anaesthetic while he has resp. issues.
If anyone can offer any advice i would be very grateful, thanks.
