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Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / July 2008How to intro new rat
We just joined the world of "rat owners" recently. Our "fancy pants" is adorable, and we love her to pieces. She has so much personality, and is so smart it's scary! We did a lot of research and after reading everything about having at least "2" rats, we got another one. We are trying to introduce them. The 2nd rat is a bit bigger, and she seems to be a biter. Whenever you put your hand hear her, she chomps, and not a little "love bite" either. Is this something that she will stop soon? First I don't want bitten, and I don't want her to bite our daughter whose fingers are much smaller! second, I'm afraid to put her in a cage with the other rat as I'm concerned about her biting Fancy Pants as well. Right now I have them in cages set about 6 inches apart. They can smell each other, but can't touch! I read to do this, and then put something from the other's ones cage into their cage for the smell as well. But I'm really concerned with the biting, so want to see what we can do about that first. They are both about 8 weeks old (according to the Pet Store). THanks! > We just joined the world of "rat owners" recently. Our "fancy pants" > is adorable, and we love her to pieces. She has so much personality, [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > and not a little "love bite" either. Is this something that she will > stop soon? Hi, I can't advice on the biting as I haven't had a biter. Have you made any progress? When I introduced a new friend to my older two, I kept them in seperate cages, as you have, but let them play together out of the cages (on the sofa) while supervising. After about a week of playing together every day, I let the new one go in the elders cage and visa versa (all supervised) for visits until I felt confident enough (through watching how they interacted) to leave them together overnight. Short squeaks while playing are normal and not to be worried about.( she says nonchalantly, as if they never had *her* jumping up to save the baby) :) If you heard a blood-curdling prolonged squeal, jump in quickly to seperate. Good luck! Andrea >> We just joined the world of "rat owners" recently. Our "fancy pants" >> is adorable, and we love her to pieces. She has so much personality, [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > >Andrea I still have them in separate cages next to each other. The #2 rat (the one we bought as a companion), whose name is Peanut Butter, still seems to want to bite, but not quite as much. She is rather hyper (not that they aren't both), and wants to zoom away from us, while Fancy Pants (first rat we got) will stray somewhat and then run back towards a person. I'm going to let them out together in the tub I think and see what happens, I'm just so scared that Peanut butter, who is bigger, will hurt her. Will keep progress posted, and certainly would appreciate any long-time rat owners advice! Thanks. Jamie >>> We just joined the world of "rat owners" recently. Our "fancy pants" >>> is adorable, and we love her to pieces. She has so much personality, [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > is bigger, will hurt her. Will keep progress posted, and certainly > would appreciate any long-time rat owners advice! Thanks. Jamie i think you're taking the right approach: slow and easy, but always pushing it a bit further. |
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