[2manyrats]

I introduced my boys yesterday. Mister G & Curly were living together (in quarantine), and Icky was living with my boyfriend's boys. So yesterday, I . started by letting them hang out in a neutral space for a few hours. They didn't seem to care one lick about each other, so I cleaned & rearranged the cage, plunked them in together, filled a spray bottle, and sat down to watch.

There was one spat - a few squeaks - and then they were all sleeping together in a pile 20 minutes later.

All of the boys are *really* passive. That's probably why it went so well.

Yay!

 

[LizLovesRats5]

Yeah, my rats take to other rats very easily as well. The hardest introduction to date was introducing the three girls to the two neutered boys. Pickle, the alpha female, followed the boys around for the first couple days and repeatedly peed on them, LOL. Other than that it went extremely well.

 

[2manyrats]

Hehe, the alpha female around here is also named Pickles... because she *is* a gigantic pickle, always destroying everything, picking fights, stealing everyone's food, and being generally disruptive.

 

[twitch]

congradulations on the smooth intro. i hope my intro next week goes as well.

 

[2manyrats]

There was one more fight this afternoon, and they both stood head-to-head for a bit until I came over and distracted them. It didn't look like there was a clear dominant one, so there many be so more spats before things settle out completely... but at least this is going better than when I introduced two alpha females... they tore each other up a bit.

 

[OnlyOno]

how much "tearing up" would you consider okay? i'm ridiculously eager to introduce my two girls. picasso is adventerous and nosy, mozart is a snuggler and likes to be babied. i don't want mozart to get her butt stomped. i know about proper intro techniques and procedures, but i was just wondering that in case of spats, how far should i let things go?

 

[Strike2]

I usually take mine out if one stays after the other for more than a few minutes.

 

[2manyrats]

Yeah, I agree. They have to do some fighting to get the new hierarchy established, but if a fight gets really nasty (screeching & biting), I break it up. Introducing two alphas is particularly hard, and my girl's case they ended up giving each other 5-7 bites a piece over a period of a few days. They'd been through *all* of the recommended steps of intros, and everything went pretty smoothly until they were both in the cage. After getting bitten while separating them, I started using a bottle of water to stop fights. Then, I came up with the idea of putting fruit juice in the bottle, and they'd lick it off of each other. I'm not sure if that helped them to get along in the long run, or not.

It seems like the girls are much more territorial than the boys, which means they're gonna be nastier when their turf is invaded. Or maybe all of my girls just have aggression issues!

Anyways, I treated all of the bites with Neosporin. One turned into a small abcess which went away on its own. That's the big problem with bites - they get infected *really* easily. So separating them before they start biting is good.

 

[Ashadeen]

how much "tearing up" would you consider okay? i'm ridiculously eager to introduce my two girls. picasso is adventerous and nosy, mozart is a snuggler and likes to be babied. i don't want mozart to get her butt stomped. i know about proper intro techniques and procedures, but i was just wondering that in case of spats, how far should i let things go?

Are mozart and picasso still as young as they appear on your signature?

If so, then don't worry. That will me most likely a easy introduction. I think they will sort that out quickly. Do they live now alone your little girls?

I never had serious problems introducing rats to each other. Ok mostly it was the introduction of a baby rat to older ones, that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[OnlyOno]

they both live alone, picasso in a large bird cage with ramps and levels, hammocks, boxes, a lei, a 9" wheel, and lots of random toys and things to nibble on. mozart's quarantine cage is a 10 gal aquarium with lots of towels and 2 hammocks, so gets more out of the cage play time. i think picasso is 4-5 months, and the sign on the cage i got mozart out of said her birthday was april 3, so that would make her 5 weeks old. she's about 3/4 the size of picasso though, so i think she might be a month older than that (so 3/3 instead of 4/3, a typo i guess). i think the intro will go pretty well, so we'll see. i've had mozart for almost 2 weeks, and i'm antsy to introduce them.

 

[2manyrats]

Yeah, OnlyOno, I don't think you have too much to worry about. Mozart won't pose much of a threat to Picasso, and Picasso's still young enough to be pretty playful. I'd go through the recommended steps for introduction carefully (neutral spaces first, playtime together outside of the cages, switch their cages for a day, etc.), but without too much concern.

 

[OnlyOno]

hooray, i can't wait. 2 more days! (i'm going for a 2-week quarantine, mostly because i'm giddy, and also cuz they're not in a separate airspace anyway...)

 

[twitch]

you thought your intro was an easy one! well today i introed bribery to the rest of my girls. they played on the couch, me and the chair for nearly an hour then i put bribery in the big cage with the others. there hasn't even been so much as a scuffle or foofy fur. i know there were a lot of steps i didn't do but from the way they were getting along during play and the the temperment of my rats i went ahead and skipped just about everything. i didn't even need to change the cage or clean the soft fabrics. i don't think i ever had such an easy intro since i introed lyiint to pocket.

 

[2manyrats]

Cool, twitch. That's awesome that it went so well. How old are they?

 

[Poppyseed]

Cause the girls oogled over the new although snipped guy lol. He's like their idol XD

 

[twitch]

i have a bit of an age range in the cage. the new boy, Bribery will be 11 weeks this coming monday. but he's already the size of sweetipi who is 6 months as well as the same size (perhaps slightly bigger even) of my two 11 month old girls Tween and Twix. then there's Kakushi who just had her one year birthday on the 3rd and i suspect Violet to be around the same age (she was a rescue) though no one is as large as Kakushi (she's a bruiser! haha) and finally old Spider who is 29 months.

poppy- haha i don't know about idol but they certainly don't mind him being there. well he doesn't seem to have found a girlfriend yet anyway.

but you know, that i get thinking about it. maybe the ease of the intro has something to do with the queen being so old and there not yet being a second after iedani left. the heirachy isn't all that settled and the queen is old and lazy so probably doesn't care so much so long as she still gets her yumyums.