Rats, like people, are social creatures. They do best in groups--a group of rats is a group of healthier, happier rats. So Witter, being an alone rat...it's not right, and having seen his interactions with the other rats, it's obvious he'd like a friend.
I've written before about the attempts we've made at introducing Witter to our other rats. Abita and I adopted Jim, intending to introduce him to Witter (if it doesn't work out with Witter, then we'll intro him to the girls). There's actually a good chance Jim & Witter will work out together: Jim, being smaller and younger then Witter, probably won't appear to be a threat to Witter.
At the same time, Witter hopefully won't feel threatened by Jim.
Jim went to the vet this afternoon for a checkup and received a clean bill of health. We put them together for the first time about an hour ago.
Our first step was to put a dab of vanilla extract on each of their foreheads and rumps, so they won't exactly smell like another rat. Second, we needed a neutral place for them (rats are very terretorial) that would also keep them contained if one tried to escape; the bathtub was perfect for that. Finally, we needed something we could use to seperate them in case of something disasterous: a dust pan.
We put Witter in one end and Jim in the other, and let them find each other. We were watching for signs of agonistic behavior--behavior that meant the introduction wasn't going well. We were fortunate that we saw nothing truly scary--Witter exhibited a little piloerection, but nothing to really alarm us.
A layman, however, might've gotten freaked out when Witter tried to demonstrate his alpha position: he groomed Jim, and Jim squeeked like he was being eaten, which is exactly what it looked like.
I've been groomed by Witter, and I have to confess it's not exactly comfortable. A rat will drag his teeth across your skin, cleaning up dead cells and whatnot. Rats also have very sharp (self-sharpening, in fact) teeth, like little chisels. Imagine little chisels scraping against your skin, very rapidly, and that's what it feels like.
A rat grooms another rat in the face, eye, and shoulder blade areas--places he can't get to himself. Witter groomed Jim, then threw himself below Jim, imposing his alpha position on Jim, by saying I groom you when I want to, and you groom me when I tell you to.
Jim didn't buy it; in fact, he pee'd on Witter. Climbed right over his head and pee'd on him.
Witter went thru the grooming ritual several more times; I can't say I saw Jim groom him in return, but he did lick Witter's fur once. It wasn't exactly a roaring success; OTOH, there was no blood.
No blood is a good sign, and we'll try again tomorrow night. Pictures of the event can be found at this webpage.
Posted by Publius at February 10, 2004 09:36 PM