# Help! New rat behaving oddly... not moving!



## ThatHatGirl (Sep 13, 2011)

Hi,

I have a new male rat called Queek who is acting very strangely. He is sitting in the top corner of the cage, holding onto the bars with his hands without moving... with his eyes wide open (he is, of course, breathing though!) 

This behaviour started when I introduced my two existing male dumbo rats to two young new rats yesterday as I was hoping to keep them in the same cage. I introduced them on neutral ground (in the bath tub) and they were very friendly towards each other, grooming and cuddling up within minutes with no dominance displays or fights... They were also sharing food very well. After half an hour, all 4 of them were fast asleep in the nest box I gave them; so after an hour I put them all into the (freshly cleaned) cage.

My two original rats were fine and are running around like normal. One of the new rats also seems fine and is now sleeping in the nest box... But I'm very concerned about Queek! As soon as I pick him up, he wanders about on my hands/arm and seems quite normal... but when I put him back in the cage, he sits still again or sniffs extremely loudly at everything until he gives himself a sneezing fit.

I don't know what to do for my poor ratty... if I leave him to settle into the cage, do you think his behavior will return to normal? ??? He doesn't appear to have a cold as he only sneezes after purposefully sticking his nose somewhere and sniffing at it!


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

I think you moved waaay too fast with your intro's...Queek is TERRIFIED. New cage and older males have really scared him, and you don't know the body language he is seeing from your older males. If he doesn't settle in the next while, I would remove the young'un's and go back a step with intro's...how new is he? I don't like doing intro's right away until a rat has settled in and trusts me and his new environment a bit.



ThatHatGirl said:


> Hi,
> 
> I have a new male rat called Queek who is acting very strangely. He is sitting in the top corner of the cage, holding onto the bars with his hands without moving... with his eyes wide open (he is, of course, breathing though!)
> 
> ...


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## ThatHatGirl (Sep 13, 2011)

lilspaz68 said:


> I think you moved waaay too fast with your intro's...Queek is TERRIFIED. New cage and older males have really scared him, and you don't know the body language he is seeing from your older males. If he doesn't settle in the next while, I would remove the young'un's and go back a step with intro's...how new is he? I don't like doing intro's right away until a rat has settled in and trusts me and his new environment a bit.


Hi, 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it seems you are right! He must just be very scared.

The young rats are new to me as well, but are very well socialized. It wasn't my intention to move them into the same cage straight away but they seemed such good friends. I watched them in the cage for around 4 hours before leaving them together the first time and I have yet to see any aggressive behavior from either rat towards the new ones (although perhaps there's something very subtle that only ratties pick up on!) Queek seems to be less frightened now; he is (cautiously) wandering around the cage and is very happy with human interaction and happily takes food from my hands... he just doesn't seem too keen on the other rats!

Do you think I should give him another day to try to settle in before separating them? I don't want to cause him any undue stress now, but I feel that if I start again with the introductions it might just cause him more stress in the long run?


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## ThatHatGirl (Sep 13, 2011)

Or, alternatively, I could remove the original rats for a day or so to allow the little ones to get used to their new cage without any big scary older males in there... Do you think this would be a better course of action?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

ThatHatGirl said:


> Or, alternatively, I could remove the original rats for a day or so to allow the little ones to get used to their new cage without any big scary older males in there... Do you think this would be a better course of action?


I think since Queek is settling down, leave them together and just wait and watch. No point going back a step if he is finally relaxing. He might just be a tense little rat.


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## ThatHatGirl (Sep 13, 2011)

lilspaz68 said:


> I think since Queek is settling down, leave them together and just wait and watch. No point going back a step if he is finally relaxing. He might just be a tense little rat.


Thanks so much for your help and reassurance! I do worry about doing the wrong things sometimes, I want my rat babies to be happy.


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