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- Science Bits on Modifying Rat Behavior
- Modify Rat Behavior
- Earning Trust - Science Incomplete
- Infant and Baby Rats - Affecting Behavior
- Let Rats Decide When
- Bathtub, Carrier, Glove, Shirt, or Pouch: These Are Just Things and Not Techniques
- Let Rats Use Their Teeth
- Help an Unsocialized Rat - Any Rat! - Love a Transport Box
- Litter Box Training Pet Rats
- Use a "Neck Box" with Shy Rats
- Help Your Rat Sit Quietly In Your Arms
- Help Friendly Rats Be More Careful with Their Teeth
- Work Inside the Cage to Help Shy Rats Trust
- Snuggle with Rats
- Pockets Pockets!
- Bond with Rats in "Pouches"
- Bring Rats Into Your Shirt?
- Snug Holding Pet Rats
- Use Touch to Help Shy Rats Tolerate Touch
- Use Touch to Help Shy Rats Tolerate Touch - YouTube
- Help Tame Rats Slow Down Treat-Taking
- Rodentistry
- Please Do Not Use "Forced Socialization"
- Forced Socialization - Jane Adamo's Original Method
- Groom To Bond
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 1
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 2
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 3
- Groom to Bond - from YouTube 4
- Aggression & Management
- Rat Behaviors
- Ratbehavior.org - Essential Behaviors
- Major Rat Body Language - RattyRat
- Establishing the Social Hierarchy: Normal Rat Behaviors
- Normal Play Behavior in Rats
- The Dangers of "No Blood, No Foul"
- Are These Two Rats’ Behaviors “Over the Top”?
- Rats and the Concept of "Alpha"
- Submission, Dominance, Appeasement
- Fear Behaviors of Rats
- Behaviors of "Released" Laboratory Rats
- Tail-Flicking in Pet Rats, YouTube 1 of 2
- Tail-Flicking in Pet Rats - YouTube 2 of 2
- Introduce Rats to Rats
- Enrichment
- Rats Hunt Feathers
- Rats Stash Stuff
- Rats and Evil Bandaids
- Fountains, Rubber, Rocks, and Rats
- Rats Stash from YouTube
- Rats Nom-Nom Coconuts
- One Example of a Rat Play Room
- Jump, Rats, Jump!
- Rats and Pumpkins
- Rats Enjoy Water
- Rats Play
- Enrichment YouTube Videos
- Rats Outside?
- Rats Make Trouble
- Fun Wheel, Stress Wheel, or No Wheel At All
- Rat Health
- Oops? Pregnancy, Birth and Babies
- Start Here: Rat Basics for Pregnancy, Birth, and Babies
- Rat Reproduction - by Debbie Ducommun
- Raising Rat Orphans
- Caring for Rat & Mouse Orphans - AFRMA
- Baby Rat Growth: Birth to Weaning - Rat Guide
- Baby Rat Growth: Baby Rat Development - AFRMA
- Baby Rat Growth: Pictures of the Pinkies - Rattie World O' Comfort
- Sexing Rats: Sexing Baby Rats 101 - AFRMA
- Sexing Rats: Alpha Centauri Stud
- Sexing Rats: Litter Journal - Curiosity Rattery
- Sexing Rats: RatRaisins.com
- Sexing Rats: Is This Rat a Boy or a Girl? - RattyRat
- Healthy Squeaks or Sick Squeaks?
- Bandaging Rats
- How To Do a Post-Op Bandage with Anchor Tapes on a Rat
- Slideshow - Post-Op Bandage with Anchor Tapes on a Rat
- Real Life Example of Anchor Tape Bandage Emergency
- When a Rat Won't Leave a Bandage or Wound Alone
- A Veterinarian Demonstrates Bandaging Rossi
- Good Bandages
- Workable But Mediocre Bandages
- Problem Bandages
- Bathing Rats
- Giving Medications
- When Rats Need to Diet
- Rats Do Hiccup!
- Rats Hiccup - YouTube
- Hind Leg Weakness
- Physical Symptoms of Ill Rats
- Videos of Rat Physical Exams
- Compassionate Euthanasia of Pet Rats
- Trimming Rats' Nails
- Trimming Rats' Teeth
- Rat Anatomy, or, Pretty Pictures
- Multi-Level Cages for Older Rats
- Assorted Rat Cages
- Compassionate Euthanasia
- Oops? Pregnancy, Birth and Babies
- Other Sites
- Rats Are Beautiful & Hilarious
- Friends
- Gwen
- Clicker Adventures
- Family From Fosters
- Three Rats: Maizie, Robin, Rudy
- Introducing baby boys to Gully, Tookie, and Pemy
- Introducing Maizie and Mijah to Gully, Tookie, and Pemy
- Maizie, Mijah, Reunited with Babies Rudy and Robin
- Maizie's Amazing Boy Babies, Rudy and Robin
- Maizie Has Oops Babies
- New: Mijah and Maizie
- Seven Makes Rats
- Willow Joins Me
- Flight Cage Fun (No, Rats Don't Fly)
- Pemy Joins Gulliver and Tookie
- Gulliver and Tookie
- Bitten By Pemy Rat
- Pemy and Dicey
- Mixed Up Lots 'O Rats Fun
- Old Lady Rat Lives with Young Boys
- Tugger, Toby, Timmy
- Adventures In The Rat Room
- Tugger, Toby, Timmy, Almost Grown
- Boy Rats Play Table
- New Boys Tugger, Toby, Timmy
- A Lila Rat Slideshow
- Chancy Rat, Four Years Old!
- Gwen's Pet Rats - The Girls
- Chancy Rat Boggles
- The Big Rat Room
- The Girl's Rat Room - When They Were Young
- Pen and Box Play Space
- The Old Lady Rat Room
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Using Baby Steps to Introduce Rats to Rats

Baby steps? What are baby steps and why might you want them?
Baby steps can be very important to successfully introduce new rats to current rats
The idea is not to just throw new rats in with current rats in a new neutral place like a bathtub, and expect that everything will work just fine between them. It may, or may not; and if there is going to be trouble, it can be terrible trouble: One rat can slice open another's insides in a blink of an eye. (Some people do successfully introduce rats quickly, but it's not clear why they are successful.)
To achieve a successful introduction - while avoiding disasters and keeping rats safe - let them prove to you over and over, in many different situations, that they can be nice to each other. Do this by (1) gradually adding one new element at a time, and (2) repeating the same session with the same element many times before proceeding to the next. This combination will provide the rats with an excellent learning environment.
Remember, introductions might be easy, but might not. Might be sweet, but might be violent. Might take days, but might take weeks or months. How it goes will depend on the rats (their history and disposition), you (your experience and calm state of mind), the environment, and the steps you take.
One extremely important factor in achieving success will be preventing the rats from becoming aggressive with each other. Yes, some wrestling is normal as they establish their hierarchy, but there will be lots of time for proper wrestling. Before that, wrestling can erupt into violence. Success will depend on your being able to prevent violence. Visit Techniques to Introduce Rats on JoinRats to view techniques to use gloves to prevent violence. Follow your rats around with one or two gloved hands, and as they interact with each other, you have the best chance to prevent lightning-fast attacks before they happen. Not only can you break up a clear fight, there is no shame in gently separating two rats who appear poofy, or who seem just remotely "off", to keep them safe. Observe Introducing Rats to Rats: Assessing Levels of Aggression, and become familiar with the behavioral cues that can signal impending aggression. Become comfortable just moving your gloved hand between the rats to separate them briefly. With all this safety, you will give the rats ample interactions that will be quite good enough for them to learn the good lessons.
While you are keeping the rats safe, here is a list of environmental situations you can set up for your rats, going from the earliest stage of "first contact", to a final big rat pile of happy rats. These situations require things you can scrounge up, like boxes, foods, and various kinds of cages. With some imagination and dedication to outsmart the rats, you can be on your way.
The videos and photographs currently available illustrate the concepts in action. Some of the earliest, first steps, need videos added to this gallery. They include:
- Dirty bedding swapping
- Hidey-box swapping
- Cage-swapping
Then, these videos are available for viewing now:
(A) Open Neutral Area - first meeting of two rats.
(B) Open Cage Base - without the bars
(C) [Not yet added] Add walls to neutral cage base.
(D) Add hammocks to neutral case base with walls.
Steps that will be added (LIST WILL BE EXPANDED):
- Sharing small transport-type cage
- Neutral area on couch with a strange table cloth and lots of yummy and messy food to distract them from each other.
- Add food to temporary cage in neutral area.
- Add food to small transport cage.
- Others to be added.
Baby steps can be very important to successfully introduce new rats to current rats
The idea is not to just throw new rats in with current rats in a new neutral place like a bathtub, and expect that everything will work just fine between them. It may, or may not; and if there is going to be trouble, it can be terrible trouble: One rat can slice open another's insides in a blink of an eye. (Some people do successfully introduce rats quickly, but it's not clear why they are successful.)
To achieve a successful introduction - while avoiding disasters and keeping rats safe - let them prove to you over and over, in many different situations, that they can be nice to each other. Do this by (1) gradually adding one new element at a time, and (2) repeating the same session with the same element many times before proceeding to the next. This combination will provide the rats with an excellent learning environment.
Remember, introductions might be easy, but might not. Might be sweet, but might be violent. Might take days, but might take weeks or months. How it goes will depend on the rats (their history and disposition), you (your experience and calm state of mind), the environment, and the steps you take.
One extremely important factor in achieving success will be preventing the rats from becoming aggressive with each other. Yes, some wrestling is normal as they establish their hierarchy, but there will be lots of time for proper wrestling. Before that, wrestling can erupt into violence. Success will depend on your being able to prevent violence. Visit Techniques to Introduce Rats on JoinRats to view techniques to use gloves to prevent violence. Follow your rats around with one or two gloved hands, and as they interact with each other, you have the best chance to prevent lightning-fast attacks before they happen. Not only can you break up a clear fight, there is no shame in gently separating two rats who appear poofy, or who seem just remotely "off", to keep them safe. Observe Introducing Rats to Rats: Assessing Levels of Aggression, and become familiar with the behavioral cues that can signal impending aggression. Become comfortable just moving your gloved hand between the rats to separate them briefly. With all this safety, you will give the rats ample interactions that will be quite good enough for them to learn the good lessons.
While you are keeping the rats safe, here is a list of environmental situations you can set up for your rats, going from the earliest stage of "first contact", to a final big rat pile of happy rats. These situations require things you can scrounge up, like boxes, foods, and various kinds of cages. With some imagination and dedication to outsmart the rats, you can be on your way.
The videos and photographs currently available illustrate the concepts in action. Some of the earliest, first steps, need videos added to this gallery. They include:
- Dirty bedding swapping
- Hidey-box swapping
- Cage-swapping
Then, these videos are available for viewing now:
(A) Open Neutral Area - first meeting of two rats.
(B) Open Cage Base - without the bars
(C) [Not yet added] Add walls to neutral cage base.
(D) Add hammocks to neutral case base with walls.
Steps that will be added (LIST WILL BE EXPANDED):
- Sharing small transport-type cage
- Neutral area on couch with a strange table cloth and lots of yummy and messy food to distract them from each other.
- Add food to temporary cage in neutral area.
- Add food to small transport cage.
- Others to be added.
Using Baby Steps to Introduce Rats to Rats
Introduce rats using baby steps = the best way to minimize stress on the rats, and prevent aggression.
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