Alright my favorite rat experts :) only when difficult :) ha

[jorats]

Templeton flipped Dopey? excellent!

 

[hopefloats]

Day 12
Yeah, I kept telling myself, he needs his reins drawn in and templeton would do it, dopey is now hiding in a basket and hasnt came out since, wont let anyone near him. I am just unsure what to do for the night, if i leave them or separate them, he doesnt look like he is out to hurt them, just show them who boss is, but I am knew to this, for all i know he could be trying to mate them LOL

 

[hopefloats]

and what are the cute little babies doing in all this? well they see the perfect chance to steal everything from the hairless, all the paper they stashed, peanuts he was eating and whatever else they are around LOL they get away with it for now, but i am sure not much longer

 

[jorats]

lol... that's great that they play like that. (stealing)
What did you end up doing? Separating or keeping them together? I would probably have separated them but I'm more cautious these days.
Dopey staying put was sulking which is what you want to see... that means he's taking his place.

 

[hopefloats]

well I left Loki with the hairless, since he is not the one being mean, and I put Templeton with the babies. I just opened it back up and everyone seems to have survived the night without any fights. I didn't want to totally remove the haired rats from the hairless. dopey seems to get to cocky to fast. I was hoping if loki stayed with him, he would keep it toned down.

 

[jorats]

Intros are progressing very well, soon enough, you'll have them all living together permanently.

 

[hopefloats]

That i cannot wait for. Then I will be done with intros for a long, long time, hopefully LOL

 

[hopefloats]

I have the boys out, dopey is still quite nervous. He is on edge, but he was only bite once, Templeton warned him again, You would think dopey would give up, LOL but he doesnt, Maybe Templeton will flip him again and dopey will see the light. Toby appears to be a little bit more willing to walk around, he still freezes when a boy walks by him, mainly Templeton. Now that I see how it is working out, it is really cute to see how the babies want to be around Templeton so much. It just amazes me that they know he is the main one. he is so gentle with them, like he is teaching them how to be rat. Toby sees dopey stressed and he always seems to go and groom him a bit, like he is comforting him or something.

Templeton is still leary of walking into the bed if the boys are in there, he will walk on the side and go to where they are not at.

 

[hopefloats]

The hairless was in the cozy igloo, so templeton spent about 5 minutes pushing it, he was trying to hide them, What is his purpose for doing this? he doesnt like the boys in there still, he was standing over them and nipped both so far. nothing major but I feel bad for the hairless, they dont want to walk around the cage at all.

 

[jorats]

From how you describe Templeton with the younger boys, he sounds like a really good alpha. A good alpha keeps a happy cage. But he does what he needs to do, according to the signals that Toby and Dopey are sending.

 

[hopefloats]

well then those hairless need to knock it off, so templeton can go back to being my sweet boy LOL

 

[hopefloats]

Day 13

Still at a total stand still with Toby, Dopey and Templeton getting along. The hairless are more at ease when it is just Loki, or even the little ones. soon as Templeton comes into play, it is 3 stressed ratties.

So I scrubbed down the top half of the Double FN. Left only food, water and one tub for a bed. Templeton refuses to get in a bed with them in it. SO if he wants to lay down, he is going to have to. He gets in for a second, dopey squeaks, Templeton jumps out.

For a while today, I am going to leave those 3 together and see how it goes. Since they are the ones with the issues, They can hopefully figure it out. It could be the totally wrong thing to do, but he comes up and owns the top half, and wont let them down in the bottom half, I figured if they only half one half, they have to mingle a bit.

it sounded good in my head LOL so we will see if it is a bad play on my part.

 

[hopefloats]

must not be to horrible, he just got in the bed with the boys He didnt stay long, but he was in there at least. I gave them tons of snacks hoping to make them happy. I took the level out as well, it is only one level.

 

[jorats]

He got in bed with the enemy. lol

 

[hopefloats]

That was a movie wasn't it? sleeping with the enemy? LOL well Templeton is chasing dopey around. A few nips, a few stand on our legs till one gets tired or bites LOL. I gave him ludo, so he didn't feel like it was a double tag team and just him. I really think it powered him. but he is in the bed with Toby, they are sleeping so hopefully this will help something. Dopey is cowering by the door lol. I swear these guys are so stubborn.

 

[hopefloats]

They are still separated LOL I swear i cannot win. The two haired rats are on the shelf, and the hairless are in the box. I wont quit, They are staying together all day. I will win this battle of the ratties!

 

[jorats]

They don't necessarily need to be together together... so long as they are in the same cage and there is no attacking then I'd say you are good to go.

 

[hopefloats]

well it depends on your definition of attacking. They don't full fledged fight, Templeton chases them, they go on their hind legs, and a few nips but no broken skin. I did watch templeton chase dopey up the ramp, LOL dopey jumped well he is kinda back heavy so I was shocked, that his big ol butt let him jump like that but he did with grace LOL>

 

[jorats]

lol... Ok so that's not attacking that's normal rattie behavior.

 

[hopefloats]

Well I cleaned the cage out again, scrubbed it down, used this pet deodorizer on it, just a tad LOL , Took all the hammocks out, they have a bucket like for dishes on each level to choose from to sleep, I will keep it like that for a minute then maybe add a few in later. Templeton has had way less attitude with having less stuff in there, so loki is actually sleeping with dopey in a bucket..


I seriously cannot thank you enough for going through this with me. It really does mean a lot!