# Amuseing protective behavior



## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Whenever one of my pets of other species sniffs the cage, Odin bites them  I know I'm horrible to be amused by this but my cat got a skinned nose and my ferret Spazz got her nose bitten slightly as well. Nothing serious but it sure did annoy them and I wasn't laughing at the time with Spazz because she was sneezing blood.

So yeah I just find it funny that he is protective of his cage when it comes to my cats and the ferrets. I found that Lou got up there and he got gnashed at but no bites luckily and I was able to remove Lou before any more aggression was shown.

I don't know why I find this amuseing, maybe because I picture rolly polly Odin getting soldier like all of a sudden. HAVE TO PROTECT!! He's the guard and wants to be the alpha male but Bastian fights with him from time to time for that position >_>

Do you guys have any amuseing antedotes such as that about cage protection?


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## JennieLove (Jan 2, 2007)

My rats do the same thing! Ya their just protecting their terf...lol.


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

i try 2 put the cages higher than the others can reach


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

I think after one bite on the nose my cat got the point, my ferrets however will never learn ANYTHING.


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

lol my rats lick anything that does get near lol except roob he attacks (even me!)


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

I know I've said it before, but you really should consider neutering Roob. I thought he was just being aggressive toward the other boys, but if Roob is actually attacking you, that's really bad.


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

its not all the time im alright with it as hes just protective over his cage


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

I understand, but you should know that that's a hormonal behavior (being territorial). How old is Roobs? It's possible he's just going through his teenage stage where males become brats for a while.


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

hes about 7 months if what the store told us was right


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

Yeah, definitely time for the teenager stage. I'd give him a couple more months to calm down (have you tried forced socialization?), and then maybe consider talking to an exotics specialist about neutering.


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

Also, for the original poster - rats don't sneeze blood unless they've had serious head trauma. More than likely what you saw was porphyrin. Porphyrin is a red mucous that is produced by a gland behind the eye (the Harderian Gland) which dries the color of blood. It's often mistaken for dried blood by people unfamiliar with rats. Porphyrin staining is often associated with mycoplasma flareups or upper respiratory infections because the infection puts stress on the rat, and stress will cause the discharge of porphyrin from the eyes and nose. This doesn't always occur when a rat is suffering from an infection, but it is extremely common with them.


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

he socalizes with the others about 2 hours min a day and with me most the time


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

Forced socialization is a method a lot of people use to get their skittish/nervous rats to be more comfortable with them, maybe you can try it with Roobs. It's really very simple; for 20 minutes a day, put him in your lap and just continuously pet him and touch him. Don't allow him to leave your lap or climb on you. This method's very effective and after a couple of weeks, most rats are more laidback.


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## fallinstar (Nov 26, 2006)

yes ive been doing that every day since xmas


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Oh no the rat wasn't sneezing blood, my FERRET was because my rat had bit her nose. It was really scary at first, but she was fine, just a little nipped by Odin.

I know about porphyrin and both rats don't have that at all.


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## King420 (Jan 6, 2007)

heres one for ya, i was at a friends house with my first rat Pebbles, and their pit bull came up to investigate my rat a bit. Next thing i know my rat was clung to the pit bulls face! I mean Pebbles was really tearing this dog up! I never in my life thought she would go after another animal that was that big. **** i never thought she could be that aggressive being the social thing that she was. I used to take her to the bar with me and pass her around from person to person and never had a problem. But any way.....who'd have thought that a rat could beat up a pit bull? LOL!


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## Nazarath (Feb 20, 2007)

My dog will sit and look into Naz's cage and wag his tail. I can tell he wants to play or VERY possible he just wants to chaise him. Naz will sit there and just look at him, almost like a staring contest lol. Then Pongo (dog) will start whining and Naz will sort of curp at him which in rat i think means "Shut the [email protected]*k up!" lol By this time i get pongo to leave him alone for a few minutes and then they are right back at it lol.


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## King420 (Jan 6, 2007)

LMAO! You got one **** of an odd couple there.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

My cat was like that for a while but after some very firm 'NO's' She knew they were fellow brethern and not play things. Her and Joshu used to sleep together (with my suprivision of course)

And before anyone jumps to conclusions, the rats WERE caged and the ferrets were pokeing their nose where they shouldn't. I had the ferrets out playing in my room when Chris was doing some home recording. The rats were being too loud with the water bottle so I brought them in my room on the bed. Spazz came up from the otherside of the cage so sneeky like I didn't see her until she started yelping D:

Yeah they normally aren't that easy to reach.


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