Despite our concern that Fuyume was shooing and bullying Sayuri, at last the fight for the throne of the alpha rat seemed to have settled, though I am not that sure who the winner is. For the last two mornings, I have been finding Sayuri quite happily tucked in the nesting box with both Miyuki and Fuyume.

The Story So Far....
Firstly I had to cage them separately. When I first introduced Mini (Sayuri's nick name) to the Biggies (a collective name for Miyu & Fuyu) Mini was immediately attacked and she was squeaking in horror she had too be rescued several occasions. After 1 or 2 days eventually they got used to the idea of having a new rat around and stopped attacking Mini while they were in the neutral ground. I was also feeding them all together in the neutral territory too so that they learn to associate nice food in the neutral territory = they have to be (nice) with Sayuri.

Eventually the Biggies stopped fighting and started to take a nap with Sayu while on the neutral ground. So I tried to put Sayu in the Biggies' cage, and she was attacked yet again, and I felt so bad for Sayu for putting her through this. Anybody who gets a new addition would be expecting a one big happy family. But this is reality. So I put the Biggies in Sayu's cage and everybody were actually cool with it (yey!), with some mild squabble.

After spending few days in Sayu's tiny cage, the Biggies were relieved to be back in their large cage, but this time with Sayu with them. Fuyume did not like this. She would fluff up and shoo the lil one for few days and chase her around in the cage. Sayu is smaller and faster so most of the time she made her escape and Fuyume can't be bothered to chase her most of the time. I also kept a very close eyes on them making sure they are not drawing blood from each other.  Now I come to think of it Sayuri has been provoking Fuyu, by running up to her in her sleep, squeak at her, punch her and run away. Fuyume would get scared of sudden sharp squeak as her eye sights aren't very good and she don't like being woken up during her nap. Then Fuyu would atttack Sayu.

They were having less fight as they spent more time with each other, only some occasional squabble for about 2 weeks in the cage. Miyuki used to sleep with Fuyume in their nesting box on the upper level of the cage but she would also visit and sleep with Sayuri on a regular basis in Sayuri's nest on the bottom of the cage. For last two days I have been finding Sayu tucked in the Biggie's nesting box!

It takes time for the rats to for a bond and I think Sayu growing bigger and stronger really helped.

There are many other methods of socialising new rats such as bath method, vanilla method, cage swapping, etc. I heard from many people it's not an easy process and my guess is that it all depends on your rat's personality and how many there are and how old they are, and their sex too.