# Aggressive long-Evans rat?



## stacibolluyt (Oct 4, 2012)

We rescued a long Evans rat maybe 2 months ago- and introduced her to our other two (fixed male & a female) they were fine in the top half of my double critter nation for about a week, and then Thursday morning (the 4th) I woke up to Elmer's neck being cut open (an inch long and about half an inch wide), we took her to the vet to have her sewed up, and Elmer is healing. Anyways, Nicodemus, the lab rat, started acting really weird towards gauge (fixed male) the night after the incident. My boyfriend looked up that long Evans rats are usually more aggressive & are known to attack other rats. Does anyone have advice on how to break her of this? Will she just have to be housed alone? I'm not willing to get rid of her. Would getting her spayed fix the aggression? Or is my theory completely stupid?


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

You need to work on her, alone so she understands this behaviour is not acceptable in your pack. The best way to go about this, would be to follow the guide titled "Immersion Training - The Guide" stickied at the top of this forum. She needs to understand that you won't tolerate this kind of violence in your pack and that you're going to protect the other pack members.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Most rat on rat aggression happens when all of the rats in the cage aren't properly bonded with their human alphas. In nature different rat packs can coexist by avoiding each other. In a cage all of the rats can only have one alpha, and that's you. 

When a rat gets confused about who is in charge they sometimes decide to pick up the slack and become the alpha themselves... now your other rats are already bonded to you and aren't likely to follow another rat's lead. So the new alpha has no choice but to beat it's pack into submission, drive them off or kill them. 

Usually the tell tale sign of alpha confusion is that the rat become withdrawn from or hostile towards you too. Some wanna-be alphas actually start attacking their humans in defense of "their" cage or pack. 

The cure for alpha confusion is immersion. Once your rat realizes that you are it's alpha and you are in charge the fights usually end. Rats don't really fight to the death over who plays second fiddle.

Best luck


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## stacibolluyt (Oct 4, 2012)

She's never bitten me or anyone else, but your theories seem correct. I spend lots of time with her, but I guess not enough. I'll re-read immersion training and start that.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I know it seems so strange that there is so much going on inside our little ratties' minds, but they are very intelligent and they are pack animals. As social animals status is everything to them. They will even kill for it.

As pets, rats live in a rather artificial environment, one we create for them. So we also need to create a somewhat artificial pack structure for them; one with a human in the alpha role. Once pack order breaks down bad things happen because ousted rats can't just leave and wanna-be alphas can't just wander off to start their own packs.


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## stacibolluyt (Oct 4, 2012)

this is what Elmer looked like when we brought her to the vet- shes missing the bottom section of her ear & it went almost all the way across her neck.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

That's no accidental play fight injury. Nicodemus intended that bite to do serious damage. That behavior has to be addressed and stopped in no uncertain terms.


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

Wow, that's one of the worst deliberate bites I've ever seen, and I've seen about 5 done first hand during past intros with my rats! I agree with Rat Daddy, a rat that is able to cause that much damage needs to be addressed ASAP or there's actually a high possibility Elmer could be killed one day. A rat that bites with serious intention to harm is no pet in anyone's books, especially one who could kill another at some point. Nicodemus needs a highly intensive Immersion session, if not multiple.


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## stacibolluyt (Oct 4, 2012)

We took Elmer back for her post operation exam & the vet said its probably for the best to house Nicodemus alone... We handle Elmer & then go to hang with Nicodemus & she STILL gets puffy; the vet said she's too territorial and really should be left alone... ): I dunno


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## Daize (Jun 8, 2013)

stacibolluyt said:


> We took Elmer back for her post operation exam & the vet said its probably for the best to house Nicodemus alone... We handle Elmer & then go to hang with Nicodemus & she STILL gets puffy; the vet said she's too territorial and really should be left alone... ): I dunno


I hope Elmer is doing well after the attack. That looks like a pretty serious injury. Fortunately you were home when it happened. If you hadn't been, it seems like it would have been much worse.

As far as Nicodemus goes. You have to do what is best for your situation. She sounds like a wonderful rat, but she also sounds like there's underlying issues in regards to territory. It's a tough call as to trying again or allowing her to live alone. Just do what you feel is best.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Rats aren't territorial per-se. Rather they are pack oriented and status driven. I have honestly never seen a rat defend real estate, but they will defend their community.

I realize in some cases the difference is minor as a rats community needs to be located somewhere. 

Nicodemus is simply driving off rats that won't join her pack or worse yet belong to another pack; yours for example. If they won't leave she will take more drastic measures, as she has already done. 

The governing relationship is the one she has with you. As she comes from a lab environment, I can't believe she has had any meaningful relationships with humans, if she doesn't see humans as her alphas, or as possible alphas, this isn't going to get better.

Lab rats are traditionally problem rats mostly because labs consciously limit human interaction with their rats so as not to bias experiments. Imagine if you were doing a test to determine how much a rat likes a new sweetener by pressing a bar to get some. One rat knows the experimenter and will push the bar to please the humans while another rat is busy looking for skritches. This will create meaningless test results and we are going to wind up with more "New Coke" products. If anything, lab rats are taught to ignore humans. To make matters worse lab rats are often kept in cages by themselves so they have little experience socializing with other rats. Basically a lab setting is about the worst of all worlds in which to raise a social animal.

Nicodemus might be a very hard nut to crack, but until she recognizes you as her alpha and joins your pack, she won't be safe with any other rats. I've personally had a friend that reformed a lab rat back in college, it was a rat she was experimenting with and they accidentally formed a bond in the lab. She brought her rat home after the experiments were over and as she told the story she developed a loving and caring bond with it. As she kept it as an only rat for as long as I knew her, I can't say if or how it dealt with rat on rat introductions.

I've had success introducing only rats to each other and I have to assume that once a lab rat bonds with it's human(s) it should be just as easy to introduce as any other rat. The trick is getting to square one.


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