[Dan203]

I had four adult males. (1 neutered, 3 intact) In Spetember I got two new little guys. Merging them was tough, with a lot more issues then I expected, but we eventually got there. Well almost. For some reason the two new little guys (Ollie and Diggles) do not like Nibbler, and he doesn't seem to like them either. Every time he goes near either one of the little ones they screech and run away, like they're terrified. And when he sees them, especially outside of the cage, he usually cases them. They're a lot faster so they get away quickly, but then they get all freaked out and don't want to play any more.

They've all been living in the same cage for a couple months now and we've had no injuries other then some minor ones early on. The little ones get along OK with the others. I've seen them actively play with both Tempy and Zeeky. Buddy has always been a bit of a strange duck and never really enjoyed playing with the others, but they don't run away terrified at the sight of him. they only do that with Nibbler. And what's even stranger about this is Nibbler has always been really docile. If you had asked me before the merge who would have the least problem with them I would have guessed Nibbler. But that didn't turn out to be the case. He was the most agressive toward them early on and there still seems to be some sort of unresolved issue between them that they haven't worked out.

Although on a few occasions I have seen Nibbler and the little guys sleeping together. One time I saw him and Ollie sleeping together and when I pet them Ollie woke up, saw Nibbler was next to him, squeaked and ran away. So it was almost like it was a mistake or something.

Anyway my question is... should I do something about this? Or should I just let it run it's course? He little guys will eventually get big enough that I assume they wont be scared of him any more. But maybe at that time a real fight will break out and someone will get injured.

 

[Isamurat]

I would take Nibbler and the babies out for 2-3 hours a night and put them in your smallest carrier together, the babies are clearly scared of him but wont realise that he's actually not a threat because they are avoiding him. If you can do this for a week or two then they are likely to be a lot happier fairly quickly. If you can couple it with taking them to a strange place or room they will bond more quickly with him.

Another options is to take a step back and move the group into a smaller empty cage and give them no furnshings for a few days, they should learn to be around each other better, however if they were introduced using the carrier method then this hasn't worked in the timescales you've left them in so they may need longer or do better with the one on one (or two in this case) approach