[KennaBoo]

Hello again everyone! As I've mentioned before in my (somewhat) newer posts, I adopted two female rats in the end of October from a Raptor Facility for rehabilitating injured birds or birds that cannot be released back into the wild. They lived completely alone their whole lives (besides when they had a male rat for breeding and when they had their multiple litters of babies before they were weaned). I adopted them for my amazing little Luna after her sister passed away so she'd have some extra company. I told the woman at the Raptor Program that I wanted them for my rat I have now, she mentioned to me a few days after I told her that, that she put the two girls I was adopting in a tank together on neutral grounds to see how they acted with another rat. One of them started fights with the other and was aggressive, but didn't draw any blood. After I adopted them, I introduced them all on neutral grounds and they took it well. Once I put them all in the cage together (after it was all scrubbed clean and fresh new toys were added of course) the one who previously attacked my other new girl was attacking my rat Luna. No blood was drawn still, except my rat Luna screams bloody murder like she's being hurt, and she rips Luna's fur out as well. Eventually she started attacking the other new rat again to. Over the time I've adopted her, she still bullied them but would cut it out for a bit after I'd yell at her to stop, up until lately in the last couple of weeks she's gotten more aggressive for no apparent reason that I can point out and attacks both of them, and she's ripping chunks of fur out of my Luna again (Luna is still screaming bloody murder when she does that to her and it scares me and beaks my heart). I just took her out of the big cage I own for them and put her in a smaller one (that my friend is letting me borrow for a little bit, so I can't make that her permanent cage or anything), because she started viciously attacking both of my rats again and ripping their fur out more. I have no idea what to do with her. She's aggressive, greedy (with food and toys to the point where she'll attack my other rats if they even walk by while she's eating or chewing/playing with toys), and she bites me and anyone else constantly. My boyfriend mentioned putting her up for adoption but I don't feel that's necessarily the right thing to do. I just don't know if it would be better for my other girls if she wasn't around in their cage anymore. What should I do besides more introductions and trust training? I'm getting very frustrated and upset that she continues to attack my two rats, especially since Luna is my love and my other new rat is such a sweetheart. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you to anyone who may respond, I appreciate it a ton! Have a great day/night & Happy Holidays!

 

[RatEmporiumToronto]

Unfortunately for this level of aggression, especially if she bites without any warning or hesitation, I personally would stop introductions for the time being. If you can help her out to become more comfortable with you first you could introduce her to the other girls afterwards and see if the introductions would go better in case she was just reacting to the change in environment, though this is not usually the case. You could always attempt at more vigorous introduction methods such as the bathtub method but I just wouldn't force intros if there is a risk of injury!
This is my personal opinion, I'm sure many people on this site could give you more intro methods for "intense" ratties!
Sorry were they wild rats before they were adopted? You mentioned that it was a rehab facility for wild animals and thought to ask if the ratties were wild as well, this could also be a factor in the rough reaction towards your pets.

 

[KennaBoo]

Okay well thank you for your thoughts! I really appreciate your help! I'll try my best to see what I can do from here and maybe find more options. They actually were not wild rats before they were in the Raptor Program. They were from two different pet shops from one of the towns over from me. I'm not sure if maybe her previous housing situations may have caused her behavior issues or not. I just hope everything will work out with her. I'm a first time rat owner and I've already dealt with so much since I first adopted rats this last September that I'm getting upset with all the troubles. I was thinking maybe she's just one of those rats that shouldn't be housed with other rats, but I know that's usually a pretty rare case, so I'm not quite sure what to do next.

 

[Isamurat]

I'd try one of two things. The first would be to try introducitons in a small neutral space like a carrier or tiny hamster cage, keep them in this kind of space for a week or two to see if this helps. If she continues to overeact even in a small space I would move onto the next option.

That's to look at spaying her, particularly as her behaviours got worse, it might be that theres an underlying medical issues. Something like polycystic ovaries can cause does to become very tense and act like a hormonal buck. Its not something you can test them for, but often in situations like this on spaying you find an abnormal uterus or ovaries.

 

[KennaBoo]

Okay, thank you for your response! I'll try that and see how it goes then. I'll keep spaying in mind though as a last resort option. Hopefully the smaller cage introduction helps though. I appreciate your time and help!