I recently got another rat from someone I work with. She played with him a lot when she first got him but then decided she didn't have the 'time' for him and her doctor wanted her to get rid of him because she's pregnant and he didn't want her cleaning his cage. He is well socialized with people, but has been living alone without ratty companionship - he's only 5 or six months, so I figured that either of my colonies would have no problem accepting him since he's so young and tiny.
His quarintine ended and his sneezing's under control, so I started intros the other day. I decided to try to put him with my 3 little brother rats because they are closer to his size and probably wouldn't be as scary for him. So I introduce him to the alpha, Haldir. They sniff each other and then Ender mounts Haldir, who turns around and flips him and they spend the next half hour chasing each other and boxing. So I decide to see if he's the same way with the really big rats (I was hoping he'd be too intimidated to try anything). I introduced him to Gan-Chan this morning after dabbing vanilla on them. Gan-Chan gave him a little nibble to show him who's boss, and that really scared Ender. Then Gan-Chan was happy to explore and he didn't mind Ender sniffing him after Ender got up the courage to do so. Then Ender followed him around trying to get up the courage to mount him. He tried and Gan-Chan just batted him away - he didn't even try to flip him in return. And then Ender succeded in getting on top of Gan-Chan and just lached onto him. Gan-Chan got mad and started to fight (all puffed up, which Gan rarely does). Ender got away and Gan actually lunged after him. So I broke them up with a rag and scooped Ender up while Gan fought with the rag and finally calmed down.
So I'll go back to introducing him to the little brothers, because I doubt I'd be able to get Gan's cagemate off of Ender if Ender tried to mount him. I just don't get why such a little rat would provoke someone twice his size. Does he just need exposure to other rats to learn how to behave? Is it his age? If intros don't get better would neutering help? It's not that he doesn't like the other rats, he just wants to subjugate them right away. Why can't any other intro go as smoothly as the first one I did
?
