Old member reintroduction. =)
Hey guys! I don't know if you remember me but I used to be in this community back in 2009-2010. In 2011, I lost my beloved Pwny, a black-hooded fancy rat and swore off rats because it just hurt losing my friend. Sold/gave away all my rat things and carried on.
I've been feeling the need for a furry critter so back in March, to get my mind off some personal issues, I adopted a few: Riza a cream red-eye hooded and Izumi- a haired double-rex dumbo. Izumi I received from a breeder who was getting out of breeding. Well, the breeder brought Izumi's half-tame father, a double-rex hairless, who snuggled in my hoodie with me when I agreed just to "look at him", and well... He came home too.
Thankfully, I have a large Critter Nation and just blocked off the middle so the two girls couldn't get in with Bucc.
So that puts me at three rats.
Now I know rats are social creatures. I considered getting Bucc neutered (I also work as a Vet Tech and the Doc I work for said he would neuter him), but we got busy and I kept pushing it back and back. So I figured "Hey, won't I just not neuter him and get him a friend around his age?"
Sounded good in theory.
So I contacted another breeder and got a GORGEOUS gray and white spotted dumbo male, about six months, the same age as Bucc. Started doing slow introductions. I guess Arrow smelled too much like other rats at the first neutral meeting in my bathtub because Bucc savagely attacked him! I'm not talking little scuffles, no. Arrow suffered a few lacerations. =/
Waited a few days, bathed both of them and tried brushing vanilla extract on both of them. That seemed to work very well! They got along, cleaned each other. But then Bucc lashed into him again.
Soooo... I had Bucc neutered today. He's doing well post op and he's going to stay in his post-op cage for a while (any advice with post op care is appreciated!!! Never had a neutered rat before!)
So, here we go with my main questions now that that is out of the way:
My main goal is when Arrow gets a bit bigger, to have him neutered as well and have the two girls and the two boys to all live together.
1. Is this a reasonable goal? Or will there still be battles from the males over the females?
2. Should I go ahead and put Bucc in with the females, or reintroduce him to Arrow?
3. How long do I need to wait after having him neutered to make sure he's 100% sterile?
Any advice is welcome. I'm still rather novice at rat keeping and my last three girls all lived together in harmony. Boys on the other hand seem to be a lot more difficult.
Thanks in advance! =)
I've been feeling the need for a furry critter so back in March, to get my mind off some personal issues, I adopted a few: Riza a cream red-eye hooded and Izumi- a haired double-rex dumbo. Izumi I received from a breeder who was getting out of breeding. Well, the breeder brought Izumi's half-tame father, a double-rex hairless, who snuggled in my hoodie with me when I agreed just to "look at him", and well... He came home too.
Thankfully, I have a large Critter Nation and just blocked off the middle so the two girls couldn't get in with Bucc.
So that puts me at three rats.
Now I know rats are social creatures. I considered getting Bucc neutered (I also work as a Vet Tech and the Doc I work for said he would neuter him), but we got busy and I kept pushing it back and back. So I figured "Hey, won't I just not neuter him and get him a friend around his age?"
Sounded good in theory.
So I contacted another breeder and got a GORGEOUS gray and white spotted dumbo male, about six months, the same age as Bucc. Started doing slow introductions. I guess Arrow smelled too much like other rats at the first neutral meeting in my bathtub because Bucc savagely attacked him! I'm not talking little scuffles, no. Arrow suffered a few lacerations. =/
Waited a few days, bathed both of them and tried brushing vanilla extract on both of them. That seemed to work very well! They got along, cleaned each other. But then Bucc lashed into him again.
Soooo... I had Bucc neutered today. He's doing well post op and he's going to stay in his post-op cage for a while (any advice with post op care is appreciated!!! Never had a neutered rat before!)
So, here we go with my main questions now that that is out of the way:
My main goal is when Arrow gets a bit bigger, to have him neutered as well and have the two girls and the two boys to all live together.
1. Is this a reasonable goal? Or will there still be battles from the males over the females?
2. Should I go ahead and put Bucc in with the females, or reintroduce him to Arrow?
3. How long do I need to wait after having him neutered to make sure he's 100% sterile?
Any advice is welcome. I'm still rather novice at rat keeping and my last three girls all lived together in harmony. Boys on the other hand seem to be a lot more difficult.
Thanks in advance! =)