Large Bully Female Rat

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ayeitsmeme

ayeitsmeme

Songster
6 Years
Mar 23, 2016
177
248
176
North Carolina
Okay so long and the short, a year and a few months back I rescued snowflake (large fancy white rat) and of course after doing research I got a companion rat so she'd live happily. Well her and coco were not the best roommates they were just not good together and shortly after coco passed from a lung infection. So then I got Penelope (fawn and white rat) and I took forever to introduce them....took extra care not to stress anyone and so slowly they became good friends. Snow is way larger than Ms P and is very dominant to the point she will beat up even my other 2 ratties during a play time once. Needless to say I've since seen that baby P stopped eating and was really stressed with a small cut on the snout so I put her by herself got her food and now she's fine.
But then here's my problem I have a snow rat that is lonely and seems to be missing a buddy, but she can't even manage to not beat up her year long companion rat. Any ideas for snow? Hate to see her lonely.
 
ayeitsmeme said:
Okay so long and the short, a year and a few months back I rescued snowflake (large fancy white rat) and of course after doing research I got a companion rat so she'd live happily. Well her and coco were not the best roommates they were just not good together and shortly after coco passed from a lung infection. So then I got Penelope (fawn and white rat) and I took forever to introduce them....took extra care not to stress anyone and so slowly they became good friends. Snow is way larger than Ms P and is very dominant to the point she will beat up even my other 2 ratties during a play time once. Needless to say I've since seen that baby P stopped eating and was really stressed with a small cut on the snout so I put her by herself got her food and now she's fine.
But then here's my problem I have a snow rat that is lonely and seems to be missing a buddy, but she can't even manage to not beat up her year long companion rat. Any ideas for snow? Hate to see her lonely.
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What makes you think she's lonely? Some rats prefer to be by themselves. So do some people.
 
Taking snow and putting her in a new cage with a companion (rather than a companion in snow's cage) may help a bit. Also, make sure the cage is large enough and then some. If you have several levels, the rats will have plenty of room to get away from one another. I know it seems contradictory, but sometimes introducing two rats to an existing rat is easier than one rat to an existing. If the fawn and white rat gets along ok with others, give her a buddy, then introduce snow to them in a cage that is not her own.

If all this fails, then she may be best on her own. It sounds like you've done your research and have tried your best to give her a companion!
 
My other girls are a lot smaller than snow so it makes me a little hesitant to introduce them. Like I somehow got lucky with her being big and my other 2 fancy rats and dumbo are fine boned. Holly and Merry are also the type that get pushed around pretty easy.

Also I switched snow and P to a bigger cage (a rat manor if you're familiar) and that's when I think she started getting a little more aggressive. And then recently I switched the babies over to a bigger cage and I loved that one so I updated snows cage because the rat manor was a complete bear to change out.

I read an article a while back that said if rats are given a larger area sometimes the dominant rats get more aggressive because they feel like they have a lot more area to protect. Maybe if I can get P in with the babies I can start to let snow play with them little by little and see if she calms down if they're not intruding on her safe place.
 
I agree. Some rats do not do well with companions, and I believe females tend to get into fights more, I used to have two males rats and I could never put them together because the one rat would kill the other. Both were fine living by themselves as long as I paid attention to them. However chickerdoodle13 did offer some pretty good advice if you do want to try and introduce. Even if it doesn't work out, she should be fine.
 

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