# Male Rats Pulling Hair



## Boo+Myrtle (Feb 19, 2019)

I have two male rats, one is a little older than the other, but they aren't too too young. My oldest is around 7 months old, his name is Boo. He is the rat that is getting picked on. My youngest is Petey, who is about probably 6 months old. Petey is a bit of a hair puller. I know this is probably a territorial thing, but Petey is now the bigger stronger rat and is seeking out Boo to pull his fur out. I figured they were just arguing so didn't intervene too much, but then I noticed after I broke them up just about 30 minutes ago that Boo had some missing fur clumps on the side of his face. I took him out and examined the situation, it already seemed to be scabbing up after about 10 minutes of the hair being pulled. I gave him some salad to cheer him up and put him back inside of the cage. They were fine for a while until Petey went over to him again in one of their baskets and pulled closer to his eye. Once again, I pulled Boo out and gave Petey a stern talking to. I know that pulling him out probably wasn't the best option, but I couldn't stand to let him keep on getting his fur pulled. The thing is, they sleep together and they are perfectly fine, but then Petey randomly seeks out Boo to pull his fur out. This time was the only time there was a noticeable chunk gone out of his fur though. I know this is probably them setting up their hierarchy but does anybody have any idea on how to calm this down? I just don't think it is fair on Boo, and I can't stand to see him getting bullied by the little brother that used to ADORE him. Thought everything he did was just the best thing since sliced bread, and this is probably them just growing up, but I am sure you guys can understand the desire to try to protect your little ones from hurting each other the most I can. This might be just a new naive rat mom not knowing how to handle them, but I am just hoping that somebody has some idea on how to handle this, cause I can't stand seeing my rats harm each other. Anyways, thanks for reading this lengthy and wordy post! Please tell me how to help this if I can.


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