Hi Sara- here’s my dilemma:
I have an adult female rat, Amelie (a loveable friendly girl!) and i just got her a partner- a young female named Lilly. At the moment, they still live in separate cages (they’re not quite the best of friends, but I’m still in the midst of introducing them). Well, all seems well except that Amelie, my older rat, has had some recent behavioral changes within the past 3 days. She no longer wants to stay in her cage (for any length of time) and will jump at the cage door over and over again, smashing her face into the door until I let her out on my bed. At first, I thought that she was upset that she wasn’t with her new companion, but she did the same thing when i put them together. I don’t want to reward her bad behavoir by letting her out of the cage all the time but i don’t want her to hurt herself! What should I do?!
Thanks for helping me!
How odd! I haven’t heard of anything quite like this before–but I’ll ask around, and I’ll post it on the FAQ to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. Usually when rats are frantic, they have a good reason. For example, my pet rat Whiskers had a litter of rats when I was very young. Right before she gave birth, she started acting a little nuts, and was licking me like crazy. I put her back in the cage, and five minutes later she started giving birth–she was acting so frantic because she was about to have a litter of babies and needed to get back in her cage! I’m not suggesting that your rat is pregnant, of course. She might just be feeling insecure and want some attention because her living situation has changed.
I had a similar problem! One of my rats (Tango) had pneumonia (she died recently). For a while it seemed that she was better, and we ran out of antibiotics, so I put her back with her sister (Pepsi). However Pepsi was now much stronger than Tango and Tango had always before been the more dominant rat. She wasn’t happy at first being back in the cage with Pepsi and kept trying (and suceeding) to get out of the cage. I had to make sure that the doors of the cage would not open, by putting on more fastenings, and eventually she realised she couldnt get out anymore and snuggled up with her sister. Hopefully your rat will give up trying to escape in the end too! It’s probably due to the changes she’s been going through, making her agitated and wanting attention from you - someone familiar!
i agree with sarah, when i introduce a new rat to the pack, they would all great him or her, some fights but it worked out at the end. but all my main rats freaked out when i took Pola (the new one) with me around the house, i wish i could of recorded it, but they would jump on the doors and simultaniously squeek and screach as if in pain. when i let them out, the stayed on me and wouldnt make room for Pola. but its just the new rat thats could be bothering Amelie, she could feel that all the attention to her could be lost, and afflicting pain to her self is her way of getting your attention.
I love rats, i’m sorry that yours are doing this but I can’t think of any reasons why they would. I have never owned one but I think they are adorable.
MY PET RAT is going to type here he goes……himmpo vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa6666666666666666666666666616fzeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeu4well there ya have it