combining my babies

Question
my babies are dauby(my first and smaller one)who is a dumbo rex, and shelby(my newset older rescue rat)he is just a black hooded with two tiny black dots on his back.
   my problem is i have only had dauby for a week and at the pet expo i rescued shelby yest. i also got a new cage that shelby only stayed in one night.  when i cleaned out the cage and went to put both of them in together shelby pawed and snapped at dauby.  then we played the in-n-out game with dauby for a while and then just left them in together.  now they are at diffrent sides and levels of the cage.  when they get togther the do it again though.  what should i do so they get along better.  please help.  rebecca

Answer
Hello Rebecca, Dauby, and Shelby!
 First, I want to say, Welcome to the wonderful world of rats! Second, thank you for rescuing your ratties!

The first thing I need to tell you is that next time you get a new rat, you MUST, MUST, MUST, quarantine. This means having the new rat in a different room, or even better, a totally different house, for at least 3 weeks. The reason you need to do this, is to be sure your rats do not spread any illness, or lice or mites to each other. There are some really nasty sicknesses that rats can get, and you wont even know they have it, and have spread it to each other, until it is to late, and they all are sick or infected. This is very important :0) and I can not stress it enough, for the safety of your ratletts :0)

Now, with introducing your boys. This may be a bit difficult, if the boys are older, or have spent a long time all by them selves. Patients and repetition will work out in your favor.

First thing to try, is to bathe them with an unscented wet wipe, clip their nails, and put a drop of vanilla extract on their heads and the dock of their tails. Then you can do both of these next things every day for the next week, or for however long it takes to get them to become friends. I would do the tub thing first.

1. Put them in an empty bath tub. This is neutral territory. Let them run around and explore. Brake up any fights. To do this you can use a water squirt bottle, just don't spray them in the ears or face, you could make them sick if you got them there.

2. Place a small tarp, or table cloth on your bed, make sure it covers it, to keep it clean.Then put an old blanket over that. Move any tables you do not want the rats on.Put some old towels, several different snacks, shoe boxes with door holes cut out, a shallow dish, like a low dog food bowel, filled with cool water, with a cat tinkle ball in it, and some rat safe toys on the bed. Add rats :0) Sit on the bed or right next to it. Make sure they don't fall off, or fight. You can also use the vanilla on them for this. I do this with all of my rats 3 or more times a week, it is a fun activity to do with the rats, instead of them being on the floor or couch.

It may take a little while for your boys to get a long. A good thing to do in the mean time, is to separate them into different cages, sat right up next to each other, so the can see and smell each other constantly. It is a good idea to have an extra cage any way. It does not have to be as large or nice as the normal living cage. It is nice to have in case of injury, quarantining, or when you clean the other cage.

I hope I have helped you. Good luck with your boys. Rats are very fun, and nice to have. Here are some websites you should go and check out. You will learn a lot about your rats, and that will make their life better, and your a lot of fun :0)

www.ratsrule.com
http://ratguide.com
www.curiosityrats.com

HAPPY RATTING!!!
Becky






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