I have a female rat who is about 4-5 months. I got a second rat who is now 8 weeks 2 weeks ago to serve as her companion. My older rat was being a bully to the baby so I have been keeping them in separate cages and working on slowly integrating them in supervised situations ever since. Today I put the younger one in the main cage for most of the day since I want to speed up the process. For the first hour I squrted them both with water every time they got into the fight, the older one quickly got the idea and started leaving the baby alone.
After about 5 hours of being together I took them both out to play and noticed that the older one was missing her fur on the front of her two front legs. There is still fur on the back of her legs and the exposed skin looks red and irritated. I am not sure if the baby did it or if she licked herself out of stress or if something else happened.I spent some along time with the older rat in case she was starved for attention and then moved the younger rat to the smaller cage to decrease stress.
I am not sure how to proceed with treating the injured area or with the rats integration into living permanently in the same cage. Any suggestions?
3
✅ Answers
? Favorite Answer
She has mites and she has been bitting her self. Take her to the vet.
It can be the first sign of illness. Rats usually best are living 2-3 years and the last year of life is commonly full of cancerous tumors. That’s why it can be so tricky to own them. They’re the best pets, but have rather quick lifestyles-spans. I for my part would not ever have one as a result of this. Agenda an apt. Together with your vet…
It could be having stress, boredom, lack of diet, or bugs, or it could be shedding.