When I do intros and it’s with already stressed out rats, then I try a neutral place that could seem scary to all rats. A place that has new smells and sounds, somewhere they’ve never been before.
For me that would be the tub.
The thing I’ve noticed with rats is that even though intros might have went bad in the past, it’s still not the end of it. You may need to step back and try again a month later. The important thing, have food available to distract them. No toys, no boxes, just a plate of food like pablum or yogurt, something that will force them to be beside each other to eat.
Have a towel handy so if a fight starts, you can throw it on them and remove the aggressor. When you have the aggressor in your hands, flip him over and with your fingers rub their chest, firmly but not hard. Then put him back. Rubbing their backs, rumps, boxing, hissing are all normal part of meeting each other. It’s when there’s a fight with blood you need to stop and try again at a later date. If all goes well with a week of these intros, then you add toys, boxes, hidey holes, some with their scent on it of both parties. If all goes well there, then you proceed to intros in familiar surroundings where they usually go for out time. If all goes well there for a week, then you scrub down the cage and put them in and watch them for a day. This is what works for me.
With rats that are not so stressed out, you can usually skip the scary place intro, go straight to the neutral intro, if all goes well, within three days, you skip to familiar place intro, if all goes well within a couple of days, then you can go straight to scrubbing down the cage and putting them in.
Intros between females are usually the easiest. My hardest intros were always between males, sometimes you need to have the male neutered to help him deal with all his hormonal stress.
May 18
June 1st, 2009 at 8:16 PM
i have had my rat for one day and i just went and bought another one from the same cage at the same place. i put them in the tub and they were doing fine just sniffing each other. then after about 10 mins i tried the same cage and now they are having so much fun together. running around sharing toys and the tissue box sleeping together
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:03 AM
Wonderful!!!
August 27th, 2009 at 11:13 PM
when i introduced pinky and juliet pinky wasnt so thrilled, because pinky is the boss and she wanted to let juliet know that. so when juliet stuck her little finger through the bars of her cage pinky lashed out and ripped the nail right off her finger!!! of course juliet was bleeding. but to this day juliet and pinky couldnt be closer, pinky was right by juliets side while she was giving birth and on that cold spring morning pinky helped keep juliets 11 babies nice and warm. it was such a sight to see!! i think juliet thinks of pinky as a mother more then a friend.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:10 PM
I recently rescued 2 rats(Snow, dumbo, and Grace, fancy) from a household that was planning on killing them because the kids didn’t feel like taking care of them. I already have 2 rats, D’Coda(dumbo) and Saria(fancy), who are cage mates and get along really well, but because D’Coda is very dominate and so is Snow, I was afraid to introduce them so quickly. I decided to set their cages up next to each other and put the levels so they could walk up to the bars and sniff each other, but not bite or touch. I kept them like this for about 2 weeks before I took them to the tub. I introduced Grace (a shy fancy) to Saria and D’Coda and once everyone sniffed each other it was great — not to mention that Saria bonded with Grace. I then removed the two fancies and put in Snow so the two dominate dumbos could interact. At first they were hesitant, but within a matter of minutes D’Coda rolled Snow over and that was that. I still keep the 4 in 2 separate cages with their respective cage mates most of the time, but at least once a day I move them all into the bath tub for running and snacking and playing, and thankfully they all get along
February 11th, 2010 at 8:16 AM
At any time now, you could get an appropriate size cage and have the four living together in a bigger colony if you wish. I find rats are happier in bigger groups. But of course, whatever works for you is great.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:28 PM
i did have a dumbo hooded rat called brian but unfortunately he died:(
i burried him on a big island in the woods and i named it briland.i go there all the time with my two hoded rats maisy and daisy. they love it there!
heres a cool rat treat recipie:
banana,egg,milk,bread,nuts and seeds,corn flakes and apple.
mix it all together and bake it uintill they start to burn1i hope your rats enjoy them!lol