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So quarantine is up finally and the two have had their cages next to eachother for 2 days now. My oldest boy seemed really interested, but the baby could care less (go figure). Anyways, they did a meet and greet in the bathtub and they basically avoided eachother for about 5 minutes, sniffed eachother and went on about their merry little ways. So, I let them roam around and play and they still basically ignored eachother other than the 5 minutes they spent crawling all over eachother to see who could get through the ferret tunnel to the yogi's quicker. Anyways, I cleaned out the cage really good and re-arrainged everything. I cleaned out the litter, tossed their litter dishes in the dishwasher and changed out their food even just in case. I scrubbed every surface of that cage and scrubbed all the toys and replaced the hammocks with clean freshly laundered ones. I put vanilla on both of them and let them go. Well they spent about 10 minutes ignoring eachother and then bam.... fighting. My oldest flips over the baby (go figure) but my problem is that the actually pins him to the ground by his chubby little side fat and then chomps down on him. The first time I let it go, the second time when the baby started really screaching and not just a little bit I squirted the bigger one with some water. He seemed throughly mad at me and decided to just go to his bed. I left them in there for another 2 hours together and he did it again before I put the baby back in his cage for the night. Now here is my problem, at what point is the fighting not ok? And my baby doesn't seem adventurous anymore! He doesn't crawl around and explore the new cage, he basically just freezes there and does nothing. Wherever I put him is where he stays. Even if the bigger rat flips him over and they fight for a second and the bigger rat walks away, he will stay on his back for a bit.
Anyone have an answer? I'm sooo confused! BTW: If it helps my oldest rat is 6 months and the baby is about 8 weeks.
Anyone have an answer? I'm sooo confused! BTW: If it helps my oldest rat is 6 months and the baby is about 8 weeks.