There are steps to intros for a reason. But no. I got too comfortable and decided to jump ahead. Today I added hidey holes, fleece cubes and such. Everything was going great. I could feel that the Chief was feeling more tense and anxious but I let it go thinking he just needs to familiarize himself. I should have paid more attention when I saw Gera go for his Chief grooming session and not stay long. He left almost immediately. If you want to know how things are going, watch the rats around. Duh. Gera pretty much told me that Chief was not in a good mood. This mood and signals he was sending made Max come to see him. Bad idea. Max decided it was time to flip the Chief and dominate. Ordinarily this is a good thing. But today, not so much, not with Chief being tense already and the fact that Max likes to use his teeth, bad combo. Chief ended up getting cut up a bit. Nothing majour, he’ll live but it was enough to make me realize: follow the damn intro steps. I washed up Chief and flushed out his wounds. He is back in his cage feeling better about it all. The sweet boy still runs to me when I go near his cage. The intro lasted almost an hour today. I didn’t end it right away, I didn’t want them remembering the butchering as the last thing… during Max’s dominating, all the rats around were very upset.
Now they are all back in their cages munching on their veggies. Tomorrow will be another day.
Max and Meeko.
Sweet Chief after the battle.
