# a different play or fight issue



## ukulele (Mar 5, 2007)

my girls, uku and lele are quite rough with each other at times i hear sqeaking sometimes, and lele who is smaller than uku chases her around trying to "hump" her. is that normal? i need advice! should i separate them for the mean time? i have noticed a cut on lele's ear. what should i do? any help is well appriciated. thanks in advance


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## Kubo_Kita (Mar 7, 2007)

Are they from the same litter? If not, they may not ever get along. You could try rubbing a little vanilla extract on both of their necks - we've done that with our rats before and it's helped. If it keeps up, you should probably separate them and just let them run around together outside the cages. They may still fight even then though - we have a rat that we can't let out with anyone but her cage mate because she's so aggressive towards other rats. Hope this helps, and good luck.


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## ukulele (Mar 5, 2007)

different litter, but they were in the same cage when i adopted them, so they grew up together


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## twitch (Jan 4, 2007)

what it sounds like to me is that they are sort of "helping" each other. in males humping is sometimes dominance and sometimes a helping hand when it comes to sexual frustration. its the same with the females though more helping then dominance mostly. how long are their nails? are they sharp? the cut on the ear could have been an accident, it is thin skin and easily damaged. hairless rat almost always have a scratch or two on them for the same reason. no fur to deflect their nails. then again she could have accidentally scratched her own ear with a slightly sharper nail and got the cut. or even cut it on something in cage, a loose bar or an edge that wasn't properly finished. watch them. if no one draws blood then don't worry. check their nails for trimming and of course double check teh cage for something sharp that could have fallen in or that unfinished edge. if its an unfinished edge the only way you'll notice it is if you feel every edge with teh tips of your fingers. its quite the pain in the butt...


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## ukulele (Mar 5, 2007)

so, is it okay to separate them once in a while? because they do tend to fight here and there


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

If there are no wounds on either of them I would just have them work it out. My boys do that often.

I never really knew about the 'helping' thing Twitch but that explains a lot. So are you saying I have gay rats? *snerks*


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

ukulele said:


> so, is it okay to separate them once in a while? because they do tend to fight here and there


I personally would avoid separating them, for long periods of time anyway, unless you really really have to - I wouldn't want to risk more problems when trying to reintroduce them.

Like Twitch said, the scratched ear could be an accident. Keep an eye out for any other wounds and if it gets too bad then I guess you have no choice but to separate them.

Perhaps you could try changing their toys, or adding more? See if that gives them something to focus on rather than each other all the time. If their nails are too long, you could put something in there to wear them down a bit. We put one of *these* at the point in the cage where our rats come to greet us most often and we could tell a difference in just a couple of days. Now, our ratties nails are lovely and trimmed... and not sharp! My neck is grateful :lol:

Good luck!


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## ukulele (Mar 5, 2007)

thanks for all the help. it is greatly appriciated


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## ukulele (Mar 5, 2007)

okay. its getting worse, i separated them for a little over a day, they were in different cages next to each other, just to give them time away from each other, but when i put them back together the fighting continues. the bigger of the two jump on the smaller one from behind and bit her back. i saw her do this and i saw hair come out of her mouth. i tried to break it up but as soon as i backed away, the bigger girl did it again. what should i do?


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## DonnaK (Feb 8, 2007)

Separate them. Use a water spray to calm them down so you can get them apart, if you need to (don't spray in their faces). After that, I would watch them for a few days to see if either of them were acting differently, see if I could find the instigator. If there are no signs of illness in either of them, then I would start again on introducing them as new rats.

Do you remember if anything changed just before this started happening? Did you move the cage? Change the cage? Change their food? Change their treats? Is one of them sick or getting old? Are they bored? Anything that might give a clue as to why the sudden aggression.


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