Fighting during intro

[puffnstuff]

Edited to say: How'd that happen? I was replying to another thread ("Did I move her in too soon?"), and suddenly I had my own thread? Sorry.
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I guess I'm having a similar situation.

My 2 new adoptees are being intro'd to the older girl Mustang. In a neutral place like on the bed or on the floor with tubes and ramps to explore, they are fine. Mustang hardly gives the youngin's a second glance, but occasionally will start to groom one of the rats, Sky.

They have traded cages a few times. I've also put them into the same cage together, only to see Mustang being very aggressive with Sky, so I immediately separated them again.

Last night, I put all 3 into the same cage, after giving it a good cleaning. Mustang is fine with Kaiser being there, but really takes notice of Sky. She began what looked like grooming, very vigorous licks all over Sky's body from back to front. But then she actually pushed Sky over onto her back, and mounted her in a dominant way like some sort of wrestling hold, bit her ear, and suddenly it turned into a rolling ball of rat shennanigans, with chunks of fur flying literally.

Scared the bejeebers out of me.

I waited a few hours, and tried again, and pretty much the same thing happened. What's funny is that you'd think Sky would avoid Mustang, but when Mustang is in the hut, Sky goes right in there with her, ends up being cornered, gets nipped and kicked, and then goes right back in there again. A real glutton for punishment she is!

How long before I put them together again? It seems that Mustang only has a problem with 1 of the new rats, and becomes aggressive. Is there anything I can be doing to get them to "cool it"? I don't want anyrat to get hurt.

 

[eagle]

How long have you been doing the neutral intros? It sounds like you need to go back to square one with the intros. Has Mustang been alone for a long time or was this recently she has been alone? Intros can take weeks if not months to fully happen. I have one boy when in out time is great, but put him in the cage and the battle is on. I will be getting Jacy neutered after I come back from vacation and will try intros again.

 

[puffnstuff]

Mustang has been alone since end of March, when her friend suddenly passed away.

Sounds like I have to keep them together only during play time in a neutral place, for the time being?

The cage that the 2 new ones are in is quite small (12x16), so I don't want them actually "living" in there for much longer. Too confining for 2 young active ratties.

 

[eagle]

Yeah just step back a bit and start all over. Give the 2 new girls as much out time as possible. Did you try putting Vanilla on them so they smell the same. Some people do that with fairly good success.

 

[jorats]

Looks like both girls have a dominant nature and they need to sort it out. You need them to go through that ball of fur and allow them to settle their differences. Sometimes no amount of intros will prevent the ball of fur, they need to go through it to find their place in the cage.
After their balls of fur, any cuts on them? Minor cuts are no big deal and not aggression I mean big gash. If there are big gashes then yes, you need to make longer intros, small cuts, I'd put her back in.