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Noisy Rats

21 17:37:43

Question
Hi,
 I was wondering if you could help me? A friend of mine recently got 2 male dumbo rats, both of which are healthy and happy. The problems is that during the night they tend to what I can only hope is play fight with each other. However it tends to last all night, and therefore makes it very difficult to sleep. Normally one of the rats is very dominant over the other, which I would imagine would be normal, however we noticed what could be a bite mark on the tail of the passive one.
He also has a tendancy to steal food from the smaller, passive one, which we try and discourage by taking the food from him and giving it back.
Is there anything you could reccomend?

Answer
Are they babies? Are they related?
What also helps me when my rats get out of hand in the night is throw a towel or blanket over the cage,that calms my rats down.
It is very normal for rats to dominate eachother and steel food, but biting howerver is an issue.
In your bathtub, or bed.... put a blanket or towel down, bathe both rats separate.
Put them on the bed or in the bath (no water) then watch them. If one is aggressive towards the other blow on his face and say NO loudly.
Then after 10-15 inutes or so try giving the less dominant one a carrot or a pea.
Then when the larger one tries to take the food (if he does wich he will) blow on his face again and say no!
If that does not work and he gets the food, snatch it away and give it to the other one. Pick the dominant one up and hold it. Let it watch the other rat eat the treat. When the other one is done eating, put them back together. Give them the exact same amount of attention.
To stop the bigger one from steeling food, put 2 bowls 1 for each rat and fill them equally with food!
Hope I helped!
-Molly