# My rat takes food from my other rat



## kali mabel (Sep 30, 2015)

I have two young female rats (they came form the same place) and I've noticed one seems to be very dominant. At first I was okay, thats natural but shes very pushy towards the other one and I was feeding them treats and she took the treat away form the other one and put it with her treats. I notice she takes all the food too and puts it in one spot, I'm not sure if shes letting the other one eat as much or at all or if she is just relocating the food.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Rats steal food from each other, it's their favorite sport. Naturally one rat is better than the other at it, perhaps she's stronger, faster or just plain old sneakier... It's what rats do. I split everything in half and give each rat a treat at the same time, usually that helps to insure that each gets to eat their treat... but it's a good idea to keep a little extra on hand in case one rat gets robbed.

When Cloud was a pup and Max was still alive, Max would patiently watch Cloud steal and hide all of the food, then she would wait for a little while and loot Cloud's hiding place and move all of the food Cloud stole to her own secret nest. Max was much older and big and slow and didn't have a chance of catching Cloud, but she would just watch where Cloud hid the food and steal it all back later. Just because Max was a grumpy old curmudgeon didn't mean she wasn't smart or persistent or patient or that she didn't get the lion's share of the food in the end.

Rats are born to steal, it's who they are and what they do.


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

Rats are brats for sure lol It is very common really for all animals (even young children sometimes lol) to not share very well & take food if they can from the others. 

Yesterday I had all my girls out and was feeding them cheerios. The adults all had some and now the babies were getting theirs. My girl Khaleesi comes over snatches a cheerio out of one of the babies hands then picks up two others off the ground and runs off.....so rude!

Rats are also natural hoarders. They wanna save the yummy food until later, so they may stash it away.

The best way to handle it is to just give them treats separately. When the stealer/hoarder goes & hides her treat & comes back for more, don't give her anymore. She will learn that she can't just hide treats and keep getting more lol

It is also very helpful when you have a girl who is a bit more dominant about food, to have two different food dishes in the cage. It will make things less stressful for them both.


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## kali mabel (Sep 30, 2015)

Thank you so much! I just wanted to make sure that this was normal, I'll probably put a dish on the lower floor of the cage for stickers to get food easier !


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