That's a good start - you're letting them take it at their own pace by letting them choose to come out of the cage and interact with you. If they're coming in and out of the cage and aren't particularly scared by being held, you can turn it into a bit of a game - quickly pick them up, then put them ...
Also worth bearing in mind that the smaller pieces of the mix will disappear into the substrate, so you might not necessarily be able to see them, but the rats will dig them out. When I first feed mine, they pick the bigger and nicer bits off the top, but then the next morning, they're burrowing alo...
It does seem to be more common to add a neutered male to a group of girls, but I think I've heard of people keeping one girl with a group of neutered males, and also spayed females with entire males. Someone else might be able to offer some direct experience of this type of group, but I don't see wh...
Spaying can help if girls are aggressive because they're hormonal. I can't really tell from what you've said whether that's likely to be the explanation or not, but hormonal aggression is definitely a possibility. When I've experienced this before, the girl in question wasn't particularly picking on...
Could you describe the situations when she's bitten you in a bit more detail? Is it when she's playing and gets overexcited, when you put your hand in the cage, does she come up and bite completely unprovoked etc? It's possible she's a bit hormonal.
Sounds like they may have been fed treats by hand and through the bars, which is why their immediate reaction is to grab at fingers. Mary's tip of offering them yoghurt on a spoon is a good one to teach them not to snatch.
Well done for adopting them and have fun making friends with them
I put a few layers of newspaper under the finacard - it helps when cleaning out and also the rats like to dig it up in the corners of the cage. They rip bits off that and use it for bedding as well as bigger pieces of finacard. They also usually get crumpled up newspaper or tissue paper or kitchen r...
If it was just a couple of weeks, I might wait, but with that length of time inbetween getting the two pairs, I'd just do intros with both lots straight away (assuming the kittens are big enough).
Sounds like entirely normal behaviour for young rats :D It will be mainly play fighting, although there could be an element of establishing who is more dominant. Normal rat interactions can sometimes seem a bit excessive, especially if you have one who is very vocal! As long as they are not drawing ...
If you've only had them a couple of days, it's possible she's just unsettled by the move and new environment and will take a little time to come out of her shell. Does her fur look fluffed up at all? That's a sign they're not feeling well. If not, I'd just keep an eye on her and hopefully she'll soo...