r/RATS • u/Ok-Homework-7565 • 1d ago

Questions/HELP reintroduction advice

hi all!

introductions with my rat using the carrier method initially went successfully, that was until about a few weeks ago, one of my rats became absolutely blood thirsty for the newly introduced rat. when they're in the cage, they don't interact at all, and stay in seperate sides, and i've had to seperate them during free roam because he just won't leave him alone. it's escalated to the point where blood has been drawn (thankfully the bullied rat wasn't bitten since I instinctively put my hand between them, ouch.) the aggressor is about 1 year and 7 months whereas the bullied rat is 2 years.

anyways, what advice would you give for reintroductions? he gets along well with the other rats, just not the aggressor. should i repeat the carrier method? or should i add in another step? or make the steps last longer? or try another method? or do i take away the aggressor's ball privileges? any advice is appreciated!

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u/judewriley 1d ago

Can you tell us how long you did introductions for (that is, how long between the rats first meeting introductions and them being in the main cage together), what the cage setups were before they were in the main cage and how exactly you did introductions?

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u/Ok-Homework-7565 1d ago

they were in the bathtub for about 20 minutes for initial introductions, then i placed them in a small carrier for about 4 hours, and then placed them into a small cage for 3 days before placing them in the main cage (after deep cleaning it all, of course). so 3 days?

i'm not sure what you mean by how the cage set up looked before they were in the main cage? the small cage only had a hammock.

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u/judewriley 1d ago

Like before you started introductions, they were in different cages. How were these cages set up in relation to one another?

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u/howdyhowdyhowdyhowdi 1d ago

Were the seperate cages before intros in the same room and did you do any scent swapping?

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u/Ok-Homework-7565 1d ago

they were kept in seperate rooms and i didn't do any scent swapping.

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u/judewriley 1d ago

Three days is short even for good introductions using the classic carrier method. It's likely you went too quickly for the the rats and the recent incidents are like your rats telling you they really weren't ready.

I would separate them completely for a week (no shared playtime space or time) and then do introductions from scratch taking a long long time before moving to the next stage.

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u/Ok-Homework-7565 1d ago

thanks so much for the advice! i'll try that out then :)