The BRODENTS! Rodent Enthusiast Thread! V2

[Kat]

So, I posted in one of the older threads a while back about raising a baby rat. Just giving an update. Here' a timeline on her. From day 1 to now.





She's one of the coolest pets I've ever had. She has mostly free run of a whole room, likes to go places with me, and is super smart. Saving her was one of the best decisions of my life.

[shim]

hello all ! i’m here to join this lovely thread and to get some advice

Username: shim
Favorite type of rodent: hamster
Tell us about your pets: i have a dog, 3 cats and a robo dwarf hamster!
Other: i need some advice! to avoid double posting i’ll comment what i need help with here.
i just got my dwarf hamster a few days ago, i have him in a big glass tank and he seems to be doing well. i was told by the person i got him from not to handle him for the first 48 hours to let him settle in. i did that. he seems to be really happy, he’s eating and drinking well and exercising a lot. my only issue is that he likes to bite. i’ll stick my hand him to give him a treat or to lightly touch him and he’ll come up to my hand and give it a nice little nibble. any tips on how to prevent this from happening or what i should be doing differently? thank you!

[mthorsewhisperer]

Username: mthorsewhisperer
Favorite type of rodent: I currently have a syrian hamster but I would love to own rats someday!
Tell us about your pets: I have a Female longhaired syrian hamster! Her coloring is cinnamon dominant spot banded.
Other:

Replying to Shim:
I have the same problem with my female syrian. Although i would recommend letting a new hamster settle in for 4-5 days. Some things you can try are:
washing your hands with scentless soap before putting your hands in the cage
rubbing your hands in his bedding to make your hands smell more familiar
don't try touching him yet, he likely isn't ready.

You also might just need to accept that nibbling is your hammys personality. Some hammys bite, some don't. It may not be out of aggression, rather curiosity.

I get a lot of my hamster info from erinsanimals on youtube. i highly recommend her channel!!

[Lex.]

Username:sugar free.
Favorite type of rodent:RATS! and mice uwu
Tell us about your pets:lol no pets, oping to get a rat or a mouse soon!
Other:i love this thread already wuw

[eff]

hello all ! i’m here to join this lovely thread and to get some advice

Username: shim
Favorite type of rodent: hamster
Tell us about your pets: i have a dog, 3 cats and a robo dwarf hamster!
Other: i need some advice! to avoid double posting i’ll comment what i need help with here.
i just got my dwarf hamster a few days ago, i have him in a big glass tank and he seems to be doing well. i was told by the person i got him from not to handle him for the first 48 hours to let him settle in. i did that. he seems to be really happy, he’s eating and drinking well and exercising a lot. my only issue is that he likes to bite. i’ll stick my hand him to give him a treat or to lightly touch him and he’ll come up to my hand and give it a nice little nibble. any tips on how to prevent this from happening or what i should be doing differently? thank you!

little hamsters, and honestly a lot of rodents, can be very stressed out when moving about.
heres an overview of what you should do,
once you've allowed him to settle. this can be anywhere from 48 hours to a week. when the
hamster is doing normal hamster things, such as eating at regular intervals, drinking at regular
intervals, etc. begin the familiarising process :


put a used shirt in the cage : the scent will help the hamster familiarise himself
with you. instead of washing the shirt at the end of the day, scrunch it up and put it in
the tank. he may use this as bedding, defecate on it, etc. / may not even go near it, but
the scent will become familiar to him as something that won't hurt him.

pet him with clean hands : if a hamster smells food or another pet on you, he'll likely
bite. this is because they have poor eyesight, and so may confuse your hand to something
else i.e food/predators.

don't pick him up : you mentioned he bites when you touch him? yeah, don't do that. he
needs to familiarise himself with you before you get onto that level. imagine it being like
an owl lifting him in the air, he's going to panic. read below to find ways to get past this
before picking him up!

bathtime : if you sit in the bathtub and stretch out your legs so you're covering all/a large
percentage of it, and let your hamster run across your legs, he can familiarise himself with
you. it's important to not touch him, but put treats on your legs so he can come and eat.
after a few weeks/days/hours, you may be able to hand-feed him, but still do not pet him.

picking him up : use a cup or container with treats in to lure him into it. with that, you can
scoop him up and transport him, for when your doing over his tank, etc.

put your hand in his cage : by doing this, and making sure not to go directly for him/touch him,
he can come and sniff when he feels curious enough/confident enough. you can even put treats
on your hand, but make sure not to move it.

put the cage near you : depending on where you are the most, attempt to have him with you.
hamster balls are really not ideal, and i can't stress enough not to use them. but, keeping him
near you like on your desk will really help him learn about you.

don't startle your hamster : don't wake him up when he's sleeping. he'll be grumpy, angry and
more likely to bite. stay up later to hold him and play about/train him then. hamsters aren't
nocturnal, instead they like dusk and dawn, making them rather hard to find naturally about.
though, some do like to cruise around any hour of the day.

don't overreact/be loud : hamsters are sensitive to noise. be quiet when around them, even if
you do get bit. don't scream or anything, try and hold it in.

i hope these help!

[fluffycat6]

Help please!!

I have 3 female mice that live together, and I recently introduced a baby. I introduced them on neutral territory and cleaned out the cages and they were all fine for the day. After that night though one of the females chases the baby around almost constantly. They fight and the baby squeaks a ton and runs away, and then the baby gos up and sniffs her again, and it repeats. There’s never any blood but the baby always seemed really stressed because of this so I have them separated and she seems much calmer.

I think it’s a dominance thing, but I’m not sure how to sort it out. I’m going to have to return the baby to the pet store if they don’t learn to get along so any help is appreciated

[REDBLUESTARFISH]

This happened once with my sister.
Yes, I do believe that the adults are territorial with the baby, and unless you have a way to separate them it may be hard to raise all of them. 🤔
Hope this was helpful! 😁

[Lemon Tea Rain]

Username: Daisyfang Weirdo
Favourite type of rodent: rats!
Tell us about your pets: a have a crazy tortie cat named Daisy (suprise suprise) and I used to have two gerbils named Sugar and Spice, but for no apparent reason Spice's health deteriorated and she just died one day after a few days of weight loss and lethargicness. Sugar is very healthy, I just have to give her a heck of a lot more attention now she's on her own <3
Other: I'm really curious about something! So basically, this morning I nearly had a heart attack because I looked over to my gerbils cage and it was open. I went to sleep last and there's no one in my house who would have opened it, so do you think it's broken or is my gerbil learning how to escape? She wasn't trying to get out when I closed it this morning, she was asleep in her bedding and perked up to watch me close it then went back to sleep. Could she have opened it?

[Lemon Tea Rain]

Help please!!

I have 3 female mice that live together, and I recently introduced a baby. I introduced them on neutral territory and cleaned out the cages and they were all fine for the day. After that night though one of the females chases the baby around almost constantly. They fight and the baby squeaks a ton and runs away, and then the baby gos up and sniffs her again, and it repeats. There’s never any blood but the baby always seemed really stressed because of this so I have them separated and she seems much calmer.

I think it’s a dominance thing, but I’m not sure how to sort it out. I’m going to have to return the baby to the pet store if they don’t learn to get along so any help is appreciated

If mice are similar to gerbils, there's a split cage method you could use to help them get along! Put them in neutral territory like you have and split them up with mesh wire or a mesh divider they can see eachother and smell eachother through, but can't get to eachother through. Three times a day swap which side the mice are in so they get used to eachothers scents and sharing territory with them. Some signs they've begun to bond and you can lift the divider to introduce them without it (still in neutral territory) are:
Sleeping next to the mesh divide together
Sleeping in the same spot the other mouse was sleeping in before them
Trying to groom eachother through the mesh
-if they show those signs or you think they're getting along, remove the divider and watch them to see if they fight. If they don't, you're good to go! If they do fight, just put the divider back in for a couple of days and try again~

[amsie]

Help please!!

I have 3 female mice that live together, and I recently introduced a baby. I introduced them on neutral territory and cleaned out the cages and they were all fine for the day. After that night though one of the females chases the baby around almost constantly. They fight and the baby squeaks a ton and runs away, and then the baby gos up and sniffs her again, and it repeats. There’s never any blood but the baby always seemed really stressed because of this so I have them separated and she seems much calmer.

I think it’s a dominance thing, but I’m not sure how to sort it out. I’m going to have to return the baby to the pet store if they don’t learn to get along so any help is appreciated

If mice are similar to gerbils, there's a split cage method you could use to help them get along! Put them in neutral territory like you have and split them up with mesh wire or a mesh divider they can see eachother and smell eachother through, but can't get to eachother through. Three times a day swap which side the mice are in so they get used to eachothers scents and sharing territory with them. Some signs they've begun to bond and you can lift the divider to introduce them without it (still in neutral territory) are:
Sleeping next to the mesh divide together
Sleeping in the same spot the other mouse was sleeping in before them
Trying to groom eachother through the mesh
-if they show those signs or you think they're getting along, remove the divider and watch them to see if they fight. If they don't, you're good to go! If they do fight, just put the divider back in for a couple of days and try again~

honestly, it sounds like the neutral territory method isn't working for you. and that's fine, because
all mice are different and therefore require different ways of introductions. some mice get really
stressed out by over enthusiastic or dominant mice, especially when they are babies and can't
defend themselves. if you think the baby is stressed, i've found a different method that is specifically
designed to not stress the mouse out/lower the amount of stress in comparison to neutral ground:

- item swapping method