Post neuter behavior and rat anxiety?
Hello all,
I’ve got two 8-9 month old fancy rats, Remi Wolf, and Rizzo.
Remi always marked constantly, had a lot of buck grease, and would sometimes get a little too rough with Rizzo. I decided to get them neutered since Rizzo also had a decent amount of buck grease and they both had that musky smell. I found a vet who sees rats and sent them to be neutered. Rizzo got neutered fine but the vet said Remi was acting and breathing strange under the anesthesia so she woke him up and did not neuter him. Which was annoying but fine with me since I’d rather have him alive. I actually work at a vet and managed to convince one of the veterinarians to neuter him on a day we had some cancellations. I watched him get neutered (he did fine under anesthesia this time) and still have his testicles in a little formaldehyde jar. So I know it happened. Rizzo’s buck grease pretty much went away after a couple weeks. But Remi is still covered in it, smells a lot, still marks constantly, has drawn blood from me when he got too riled up, and I hear Rizzo squeak in pain from time to time when they play
(It doesn’t escalate more than that) Remi was 6 months old when he was neutered and that was back in June. I feel like some of this testosterone driven behavior and the buck grease would have decreased at least some by now. Has it not been long enough? Is there something else I can do to help? I’m looking for any type of advice!
And then there is Rizzo. He has always been very skittish and anxious seeming. He very much prefers to stay in the cage. I’ll take him out to explore and he just runs back and jumps in the cage. I can leave the door open and he won’t come out unless I tempt him with treats. He has also self-barbered the fur off both his front legs. I know it was him because they were separated while recovering from being neutered, and it continued to happen when he was by himself (they could reach and smell each other while separate). And while he is never aggressive he very clearly does not want to be touched or taken from the cage. And he sometimes seems to anxiously nest? If that is a thing? He’ll run around the cage moving things and patting them down, in a very tense way. I just feel so bad he seems so scared most of the time. Is there something I can do to stop the self-barbering? I try to bring him out to socialize and give him treats and be extra gentle and slow but he doesn’t seem to be improving. And he won’t take treats unless he is in the cage. He’s very particular about everything.
So yeah, any advice at all for either rat would be amazing. I’m trying my best but it feels like nothing is working :/
Thanks in advance!
I’ve got two 8-9 month old fancy rats, Remi Wolf, and Rizzo.
Remi always marked constantly, had a lot of buck grease, and would sometimes get a little too rough with Rizzo. I decided to get them neutered since Rizzo also had a decent amount of buck grease and they both had that musky smell. I found a vet who sees rats and sent them to be neutered. Rizzo got neutered fine but the vet said Remi was acting and breathing strange under the anesthesia so she woke him up and did not neuter him. Which was annoying but fine with me since I’d rather have him alive. I actually work at a vet and managed to convince one of the veterinarians to neuter him on a day we had some cancellations. I watched him get neutered (he did fine under anesthesia this time) and still have his testicles in a little formaldehyde jar. So I know it happened. Rizzo’s buck grease pretty much went away after a couple weeks. But Remi is still covered in it, smells a lot, still marks constantly, has drawn blood from me when he got too riled up, and I hear Rizzo squeak in pain from time to time when they play
(It doesn’t escalate more than that) Remi was 6 months old when he was neutered and that was back in June. I feel like some of this testosterone driven behavior and the buck grease would have decreased at least some by now. Has it not been long enough? Is there something else I can do to help? I’m looking for any type of advice!
And then there is Rizzo. He has always been very skittish and anxious seeming. He very much prefers to stay in the cage. I’ll take him out to explore and he just runs back and jumps in the cage. I can leave the door open and he won’t come out unless I tempt him with treats. He has also self-barbered the fur off both his front legs. I know it was him because they were separated while recovering from being neutered, and it continued to happen when he was by himself (they could reach and smell each other while separate). And while he is never aggressive he very clearly does not want to be touched or taken from the cage. And he sometimes seems to anxiously nest? If that is a thing? He’ll run around the cage moving things and patting them down, in a very tense way. I just feel so bad he seems so scared most of the time. Is there something I can do to stop the self-barbering? I try to bring him out to socialize and give him treats and be extra gentle and slow but he doesn’t seem to be improving. And he won’t take treats unless he is in the cage. He’s very particular about everything.
So yeah, any advice at all for either rat would be amazing. I’m trying my best but it feels like nothing is working :/
Thanks in advance!
