[tasha]

My two little ladies have been living together since October and have scuffles but never anything serious and certainly never blood. (one white, one black)

I put an apple core in the cage, ten minutes later I heard a LOUD squeak. Didn't really think anything of it.

Went over there now, it's been about an hour, and one rat (white rat) has blood on her nose. Can't tell whose blood it is right now (or who was the biter or the bite-ee).


Is everything okay? Should I be concerned?

 

[Forensic]

Are you certain it's blood? Some rats can have a blood-like substance when stressed, etc?

They've been living together for eight months... I would think it would be an accident?

I would watch them, though, just to make sure no one's gone a bit aggressive...

 

[kerkam]

I would just keep an eye out - sometimes rough and tumble can lead to a misplaced scratch or something like that

 

[DonnaK]

Did you get to the bottom of it? Were either of them injured?

 

[Wench]

If you are able to handle them, you can apply a little bit of hydrogen peroxide to wherever you think a wound might be, just try not to get it up her nose or in her eyes, and apply a small amount every now and again with a bit of tissue.

 

[lilspaz68]

Hydrogen peroxide must always be diluted as with full-strength it actually kills the cells.
For small wounds you can use neosporin. For wounds on the head I usually leave alone so that they don't groom and get it in their eyes/nose.

 

[tasha]

It happened twice and I'm pretty sure it's blood.. didn't look like poryphyrin (sp) at all. I never found a scratch on anyone and I did notice that she cleaned it off of her nose within 10 min. It wasn't ON her nose, it was all around the area of her whiskers and everything, it was on her whole face basically.
It was completely gone when I went back and checked. The fighting did happen a second time that night, it was quite loud and they were rolling all over each other and I split them up but never found anyone hurt. It's just creepy as I'm pretty positive it was blood and not sneeze residue or something. (I know that looks a bit like blood but the color of this was just different and it was sticking onto her fur differently than the other does.)

There have been no other big fights that I've seen or heard so hopefully this was just a fluke.