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Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / March 2007Fighting females
My pair of rescue-rats have started squabbling quite seriously over the past week; I had to take one of them to the vet because of an open wound in her abdomen, in addition to a superficial bite on her shoulder. Tonight she had fresh blood on her cheek from another bite, and there seems to be some kind of damage to one ear. Most of the time they are still cohabiting quite happily, but every so often they seem to be inflicting real damage. The vet said that he didn't think it was normal for females to fight like this; is that right? It certainly isn't one-sided -- Annabel was chasing Natalie round and round the floor yesterday -- but it always seems to be Annabel who ends up bleeding. I'm not even sure which is the alpha (I used to think it was Annabel, but Natalie always did seem to nip her when they were out of sight), and I wonder if the trouble could be related to a dominance challenge by whichever used to be the under-rat... I've had them for about six months, and they're probably something around nine months to a year old. So far as I know they were living together as part of a larger group when I got them, and they've been together ever since I've had them, with no previous injuries; now three in a week. I can't think of any recent changes that could have sparked this off, save that Natalie has started grooming the inside of my mouth -- and I really don't see how that can be related!  SignatureIgenlode Visit the Ivory Tower http://ivory.150m.com/Tower/ Buster Keaton fan http://uk.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=17884208 i wish i could help but i've never encountered it before with any of my female rats. i'll be interested to read what others might have to say... i have read studies of rat behavior where the biting becomes so bad that one of the rats becomes a recluse. hopefully this will not be the case with your little ones. > My pair of rescue-rats have started squabbling quite seriously over the > past week; I had to take one of them to the vet because of an open wound [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > this off, save that Natalie has started grooming the inside of my mouth > -- and I really don't see how that can be related! >>My pair of rescue-rats have started squabbling quite seriously over the >>past week; I had to take one of them to the vet because of an open wound [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] >>this off, save that Natalie has started grooming the inside of my mouth >>-- and I really don't see how that can be related! It is quite odd... have they been treated for mites? Sometimes when the rats start to exhibit a different behaviour, a lot of the times it's because of some added stress in their lives. Have there been any changes like change of cage, move the cage from one area to the other, loud noises, new pet in the family? SignatureJoanne Owned by 22 rats. Webshots: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanneb70 ------------------------------------------------------- ~Ignorance is not innocence but sin. *Robert Browning* > >>My pair of rescue-rats have started squabbling quite seriously over the > >>past week; I had to take one of them to the vet because of an open wound [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > >>still cohabiting quite happily, but every so often they seem to be > >>inflicting real damage. [snip] > It is quite odd... have they been treated for mites? No -- would that make matters better or worse? I assume the vet would have picked any mite infestation up when he was treating Annabel... > Sometimes when > the rats start to exhibit a different behaviour, a lot of the times > it's because of some added stress in their lives. Have there been any > changes like change of cage, move the cage from one area to the other, > loud noises, new pet in the family? The only thing I can think of is that it was very cold for a week or so, and they spent a lot of time in bed. Maybe they got on each other's nerves? :-) Natalie's been biting *me* hard enough to hurt, especially my socks, but also through my vest. But she never bites bare skin, so I assumed it was mis-directed grooming behaviour -- she also eats buttons. (Oh dear, they're at it again: chasing round and round the floor, standing up on their hind legs to push each other over, and squeaks of pain/indignation...) And in the time it's taken me to type that, everything's calmed down <shrug>. Annabel is busy climbing the rungs of the chair, and Natalie is doing a commando raid on the crusts in the box that I carelessly left open :-) <ouch> And biting my toes! <takes off socks in self-defence> I don't *mind* the fighting, as long as they're not inflicting serious damage. [Edit: and she just gave me a serious fright by standing on the monitor lead and pulling it out of the back of the computer (the plug wasn't screwed in); I thought she'd bitten through a cable! Little demon ;-)] SignatureIgenlode Visit the Ivory Tower http://ivory.150m.com/Tower/ Those jaded in their emotions demand monstrous things to arouse them >>>>My pair of rescue-rats have started squabbling quite seriously over the >>>>past week; I had to take one of them to the vet because of an open wound [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > lead and pulling it out of the back of the computer (the plug wasn't > screwed in); I thought she'd bitten through a cable! Little demon ;-)] The nipping of the socks and close, that is totally normal behaviour. Some rats just like taking little nips here or there. It can be quite annoying. From what you are describing... I think it's just play fighting. Rats do this all the time. Especially since you say in a blink of an eye, it's all calm again. As for the mites... they are basically undetectable even through a skin scraping. SignatureJoanne Owned by 22 rats. Webshots: http://community.webshots.com/user/joanneb70 ------------------------------------------------------- ~Ignorance is not innocence but sin. *Robert Browning* |
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