# Sadly we have to rehome two of our boys - NE Florida



## TheHippyRatter (Apr 25, 2014)

I need to find another home for Sherman & Mr. Peabody. 

I have been working with Peabody on immersion and have been spending most days with him out of his cage with me. He's doing ok with me and loves snuggles and scritches and treats, but he will NOT play nice with my other rats no matter what I do. I had these two in the bottom portion of my DCN with my other boys in the top half - everybody wanted to be able to see through the closed ramp (they would tear up the liner if I tried to block it off) so I was leaving that exposed for them to get acquainted. The first times I tried to do intros with all 5 boys two of them were injured by Peabody (blood was drawn). After a few weeks of them sniffing each other through the closed ramp bars Peabody bit the mess out of Barnaby the Hairless - enough to cause his front foot to swell up and I thought he was going to lose a finger. After a few weeks of treating it and him he's healing up nicely now. But I just can't have Peabody keep injuring all the other boys. Sherman & Peabody have been together all their 1 year and 6 month lives so they are very used to each other. Sadly, Sherman very much wants to be friends with the other rats, but I don't feel it would be fair to Peabody to separate them. Peabody is very "alpha" to Sherman, especially after I've snuggled with Sherman alone for a bit, but he's never injured him.

I've moved Sherman & Peabody to their originally smaller cage, but we just do not have the space in our tiny place to have the two cages set up permanently. My goal was for them to all live peacefully in the DCN, even if the ramp had to stay closed all the time. But dealing with a rat like Peabody is far out of my knowledge base. I've posted in the Behavior thread and read every single post about aggression or alpha confusion I can find, but it's not getting any better. I think he just needs to be in a home with no other rats, or with someone who has the expertise for him and the room for their cage.

This has been a very difficult decision for me to come to. I don't like feeling like I'm giving up on an animal like this. But it's just not getting better and I'm not sure what to do differently to make it get better. I discussed this with the rescue that I got him from, and she agrees this might be the best thing for him. Unfortunately she is getting out of rescuing for now as she's trying to move across the country, so she can't take them back. Is there anyone in the area who could take them in?


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## Pan&Lou (Jun 14, 2013)

Oh my gosh! I saw your as on craigslist, I live in the area. I see you changed it to adoption pending though, is it going through alright? 
I'm attempting to convince my parents right now to let me buy some rats off a local rat breeder, Sarah, she is closing up her breeding business and giving away the last seven of her boys, there was a rehoming fee but I guess she really needs them gone. 


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