# Female Rats Fighting?



## Everfree (Oct 4, 2016)

Hi there! I wanted to ask if this was normal. My two female rats get along pretty well for the most part They sleep together and they have been good towards each other but Drizella will chase Anastasia around the cage and then (I am not sure if it is biting but it sort of looks like cleaning? ) will proceed to get Anastasia to stay and than what looks like "Bite" her, there are no squeaks from either though and I just wanted to ask are they fighting? Is it fighting over space? Is she just trying to clean her but the other is refusing? Drizella is also a bit more skittesh than anastasia and she runs around the cage a bit frantically. Is that also normal? Thank you for any help


----------



## Asteria (Jul 6, 2016)

It doesn't sound like biting, it sounds like dominance grooming which is very normal social behavior in rats. If she was getting bitten she would definitely squeak in pain or show obvious discomfort. 
Some rats are skittish because they just haven't been socialized around humans properly, but sometimes being skittish can just be apart of a rats nature and cannot be changed.


----------



## dashielle89 (Apr 24, 2012)

All sounds normal. If there's no squeaking then they probably aren't fighting, but even if they do fight occasionally, as long as no one's hurt that's fine. Normal rat behavior.


----------



## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

It sounds like playing too me too. Some rats play a little rougher than others...maybe a little power grooming going on too here. All are normal rat behavior. How old are your rats?


----------



## Everfree (Oct 4, 2016)

Ah ok thank you! The ratties are both about 3 months old.


----------



## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Oh at 3 months they gave soooo much energy! I have 3 three months old girls myself, they live with my 29 month old rat Graine. They play a lot between themselves, and even Graine started to play again, lol. How much out of cage time do they get?


----------



## Everfree (Oct 4, 2016)

They actually free roam when they want as my room is 100% rat proofed  But at 7 every day they play for a hour and get pretty tired out


----------

