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Evening, all.
I just wanted a second opinion from fellow rat keepers. Pic attached is Hanako, who looks rather nibbled around the face. About six weeks ago, I was given a seven month doe because she kept beating up the rittens that her former owner tried to put her in with. The way the owner described it, it sounded like normal dominance behaviour, but the owner hadn't been keeping rats for very long and didn't really know how to do introductions. I took the doe, named creatively 'Rattie', and over the course of a week introduced her to my two adult girls, Hanako and her sister Sawako. Hanako and Sawako are big girls who'd never been apart, so I figured they'd together be able to take on Rattie. Rattie, rechristened Toshiko, is smallish and incredibly sweet, very intelligent, an excellent climber, an INSANE Rat Olympics caliber jumper, and, as it turns out, indeed something of a bitch to other rats. She immediately started pushing around Sawako and Hanako, who weren't quite sure what to do despite the fact that Toshiko is two thirds the size of either of them.
Yesterday I noticed these marks on Hanako's face. Sorry for only the one picture, but I've no one to help pin her down for me. There's more on her muzzle and some just past her eye. I was a bit alarmed so I checked her and the other two for mites, no problems. I watched them carefully today, and there's been a new development in the pecking order: if Toshiko gets too uppity, Sawako and Hanako will join forces and pin her down together. The look on Toshiko's face when they do that is something priceless. As a result, I'm 98% certain that the marks on Hanako's face are from her pining Toshiko. However, as for the other 2%, would you fellow rat keepers mind giving me your opinion? Many thanks.
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General rule of the thumb is 'no blood, no foul' but the marks on her face obviously were bleeding at some point. With fighting rats, you either separate them or spritz them with water to break them up so they go back to their usual business. If it's extreme aggression with blood and gashes, then you have to consider removing the aggressor entirely.
It could just be hormones. They can get pretty uppity when they're in heat, vice versa with out-of-heat does bothering does in heat.
I never had problems with females unless they were kept in a group of 2-4. When I took in a litter and combined the females with my 4 other unrelated females, they barely even squabbled. Also the names of your rats are stupid.
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Your rat names are cringey af. Weeb names are worse than the Harry Potter ones.
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>>2033172
>>2033174
Yeah, the names are kind of dumb, aren't they? I named one of my first girls after a DS9 character and I just sort of ended up with a theme. I used to have a friend who named all of hers after cheese; "Tyrolean" sound pretty cool when it's read out loud for the best in show. It's actually a reeking, mold encrusted cheese from Austria.
> It could just be hormones. They can get pretty uppity when they're in heat, vice versa with out-of-heat does bothering does in heat.
There is that. I don't keep bucks and I only desex if a new kitten is especially stroppy. Toshiko is definitely over sexed and does harass the other two. Hanako I can very rarely even tell if she is in heat, so when Toshiko tries to mount her, she's just confused and pissed off. Sawako's a middle to strong heat, but often she'll push off Toshiko even then. It's pretty weird though, the way their heats are so out of sync. This is the first time I've ever had girls who don't form the four carriage lesbian hump train whenever I have friends over.
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>>2033191
Oh lord. My girls never did lesian hump trains. They would always push each other off. That must be fun with guests. Those cheese names are a pretty cute idea too.
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