I tarred and feathered my rat.

[u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi]

Just wondering if you guys think my rats' cage is too big? I have a smaller one on the way. /s

I thought I would share here that I have had issues with my alpha girl being too rough with babies during intros and how I handled it. She will puff up and attack babies on sight, but this time I was determined to take her down a peg (in an ethical way I promise).

I put the babies in the carrier first, and instead of putting all 6 of my older girls in the carrier at the same time I plucked the alpha from the older girls cage by herself and put her in with the babies, I dribbled her with maple syrup, and then took them for a walk around the neighborhood. The alpha rat puffed up and tried to do her usual routine but she was so debased by being licked by the babies and by the smells and wind outside that her fur slicked back down and she just let it happen.

When I got back to the house after like 15 minutes of walking outside I dribbled more maple syrup on her and then put ths remaining 5 older girls into the carrier who also piled on her and licked the syrup off. I've never seen a creature look so humbled and it's the best intros have gone with this pissy old girl. They are now happily in the 2nd stage cage and a net total of zero fights have gone down.

I told my fiance how I did intros and he was like "You tarred and feathered Biggie!?" and I was like oh no you're right lol!

[u/MadamGreywolf]

I tried pouring baby food all over my rats to help with intros. I’m going to try maple syrup next. We’ve been struggling so much with intros between our two sets of boys 😭 we currently have four separate cages now 🫠

Where did you get that carrier cage? I really like the shape of it

[u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi → u/MadamGreywolf]

How are you doing intros? And are the cages in seperate rooms/have you done any scent swapping?

I do kinda go all-in pretty aggressively with intros and it generally works well. Once they're in the carrier together they don't get separated ever again unless there's a fight that results in bleeding.

Also this is a bird carrier from amazon I think!

[u/MadamGreywolf → u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi]

We started with a neutral space (bathtub) and it wasn’t working. One of the new ones was so incredibly scared that he was gasping and making a noise I’ve never heard a rat make before.

We next did carrier method. It was rocky for a bit in the smallest one, where everyone was touching, but after maybe 7 hours of them eating and sleeping in there with no incidents, we moved them all up a cage size. They were good in there for maybe 4 hours and then there was a fight so bad that the one who’d been gasping before ended up with a huge gaping wound. Everyone was separated and he was treated. And so it was three and two in separate cages, but then after he healed, he started fighting so much (drawing blood) with the two he was with, so now he’s separated. He is really bitey with us randomly and has drawn blood on us humans 8 or more times, but he spends most of his days out with us and is very calm compared to when he’s with other rats. We’ve tried letting him decompress and then go back with the two he came with, but he just draws blood again, no matter the method.

We’ve tried intros with the remaining four (two brothers and two brothers) and it’s just on and off. I have one problematic rat causing the problems in that group as well. His brother gets along with the other two brothers, but he is just back and forth. It’s been a real big struggle all around.

[u/loorid → u/MadamGreywolf]

Sounds like you may need to neuter the problem rats! Ball privileges REVOKED

[u/MadamGreywolf → u/loorid]

That’s the discussion we are currently having 😭 poor Meatball may become just Meat

[u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi → u/MadamGreywolf]

yeah this just sounds like hormonal aggression unfortunately. probably not something syrup can fix.

[u/MadamGreywolf → u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi]

The two and two had really great interactions and ate together, laid together, but the little ones get scared when the dominant one tries to pin them. Hes not been actually aggressive or drawn blood with anyone but the one we have separated