Rats meeting?

Question

I got a rat about three weeks ago, and I thought she could use a friend, she not aggressive or anything so I got another female for her to get to know, they have two sperate cages that are attached by a tube. Anyway I just got the second rat today and she is really shy and maybe nervous, and when my second rat just stays in her house and doesn't do anything my first rat, pushes her, jumps on her, and my second rat makes little but occasional light squeaks, is my first rat hurting her? Should I just let them work it out? My first rat goes into the seconds cage but wont let the second one do the same is that noraml? There hasn't been any blood but still should I keep them apart and just let them have occasional meetings until they get to know eachother better?

Answer 1

This all sounds very normal. The general rule is "no blood, no foul". They are play-fighting and establishing dominance. Rats can be quite the drama queens so expect to hear some pitiful squeaking going on.

You really should have quarantined the new rat in case it was ill and introduced them much more slowly and on neutral grounds but it's too late to quarantine now (though if they fight you could try a slower introduction process). Luckily they don't seem to mind each other too much.

Edit: The -point- is to keep yourself from ending up with two sick animals and a c**p load of vet bills. That's the point of quarantine.

Answer 2

I had two male rats and when I introduced them I put them in the same cage!!  What you need to do if you haven't already, is you need to take the sent of the older rat out of the cage she was living in.  After that you need to introduce the rats by holding them in your lap at the same time( at first my baby rat was shy and did the same thing.  He would make the same noises, but once the rats knew eachother they treated eachother like brothers)!!  

  What the noises are noises that they make when they get scared or hurt.  You should not have to worry about the rats getting into a fight, but ir they DO you need to tell the rat that hurt the other rat no and tap on its head!!!

Here are some websites that should help you more:

http://ratguide.com/care/behavior/introd...

http://www.ratfanclub.org/newrat.html

http://www.rmca.org/Resources/aintro.txt

hope that helps!!

P.S.  Here are some things you should not feed a rat or have around a rat:

Here are things that you should avoid feeding your rats

chocolate,

raw beans,

carbonated drinks,

raw sweet potato,

blue cheese,

raw red cabbage,

raw Brussel sprouts,

raw artichokes,

orange juice,

green bananas,

green potato skin and eyes,

rhubarb,

dried corn,

cucumber,

radishes,

spinach,

collards,

turnip greens,

beets,

almonds and,

Swiss chard

Hope that helps

p.s. Never use ceder as bedding, it can kill them!!!!

Answer 3

For future reference, when you get a new rat you have to quarantine it for at least 2 weeks, 3 is better, to ensure that the new rat does not have any diseases it can spread to your other rats. This means keeping it in a different building, preferably, but if that's impossible a different part of the house. Although, since you already have them in the same room, that would be a bit useless now. But just remember that for the future.

When introducing new rats you have to take it VERY slowly. You should not be keeping them together yet. You need to introduce them somewhere neutral. Your older rat probably feels that her territory is being taken because she lived there first. Introduce them somewhere else, like the bathtub. Then clean out the cage thoroughly to eliminate her scent.

If the bathtub intros go well, you can bring them together in a play area that your older rat would frequent, but not the cage yet.

If things go well THERE, THEN you can put them together in the (freshly cleaned) cage.

Introductions can take a while, just take it SLOWLY. :)

As it is, you've already got them together, so just keep an eye out and make sure neither gets seriously injured. Sometimes it takes a bit to figure out who's in charge.

Here are some sites that go into more detail:

http://ratguide.com/care/behavior/introd...

http://www.ratfanclub.org/newrat.html

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/pet_...