Bloody fighting

673 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by diinytt, Jun 24, 2015

Tango

Discussion Starter · Jun 21, 2015

Hello. I have two male rats, Max and Twitch. They are brothers and seem good friends, but sometimes I see them fight. Then after a short while, Twitch runs away, and Max follows.
Sometimes when I take him out, I spot wounds on Twitch. On the root of his tail, I found a really ugly bitewound, but it had begun to heal nicely, so I left it be, and it did. Just now I spotted a similar, but not so ugly, bitewound on his back.
I've read multiple times that they may fight as long as they doesn't spill blood. But what do I do when they do? How do I stop it when it most likely happens when I sleep in another room? I do not want to separate them, as they have no other friends. But I have the option if I have to.
I can allso mention that in the beginning, Twitch won the fights. Then after a few months, Max started winning, and has kept doing so.
The picture is of the wound I just spotted on his back.

Thank you in advance for your help!

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Mojojuju

· #2 · Jun 21, 2015

Neutering can help with this. Also, if you move the cage in your room, you might be able to spend a few nights yelling at them to cut it out when they start. I -may- have stopped my girls fighting like this. Or they established dominance and quit, who knows.

Just keep an eye on it. A couple bites isn't the end of the world, if it gets really bad then you may need to neuter or separate. They may just be going through a power struggle, which will get settled.

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diinytt

· #3 · Jun 24, 2015

This used to happen with my boys all the time. When the fights would get really bad I would separate them for the night and return them in morning when they were tired and wanted someone to cuddle with, I also gave them a bunch more hiding pots and homes so they wouldn't feel like they were on top of each all the time because I had a smaller cage. I would even sometimes use a spray bottle to get them to stop fighting. I would look out for any signs that a fight was abut to break out and give them something to distract them. This all seemed to help the fighting stop at the time it was happening but it didn't stop them from fighting all together. It got so bad at one point that I was considering neutering them both.

I think what eventually settled them was that they either established who was dominant (this process took several months though)but I also got a much bigger cage for them. They are now best friends!

You should probably wait it out a little while, as long as the fighting is not crazy insane, and if it does get a little too rowdy you can separate them for a while and put them back together at a time when they are most calm. I found that as long a they are still cuddling each other and grooming each other, even if they are fighting sometimes, then all will be okay. You just have to give them some time to establish who is dominant.

I hope you don't have to separate them for good. I refused to do that with my boys because I only have two. They are all each other has. I think you should try out a myriad of different methods and just keep up with them for as long as you can manage to give them sometime to establish dominance on their own. If that doesn't work you should try neutering, permanent separation should be a last resort.

I hope this helped!

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Bloody fighting

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