input on intro's requested- we have a tiny glitch 8-o

[Petunia]

http://youtu.be/RPSonhOhjDw


I put all six rats, my resident five and the new little PEW girl in the tub with some veggie puff treats and took a video of a part of it

It looked like it was going well but shortly after turning the camera off, Evie got into it with the new girl and then Teddy and Evie faced off and Brenna and the new girl were looking like a fight was brewing.....
I was afraid there'd be a bunch of rat balls, so I cut the session short

my questions:
if you're supposed to end an intro session on a high note, how do you do that if it looks like someone is going to get hurt?

can you see anything in this video that shows a problem brewing or.......is there anything that would lead you to believe that certain rats are going to hit it off together?

Teddy is the black hooded boy
Owen is the black berk
Evie is the larger white PEW
Brenna is the agouti berk
Smigden is the agouti hooded
and that tiny little PEW is the new girl

Owen was licking new girl and she licked him back- looks to me like they are gonna get along, Evie licked the new girl too..... but Evie can be unpredictable

Brenna was a puff ball for quite a bit of the time
No one else puffed up like that even when things deteriorated and there was sidling and face offs and what not

would appreciate any helpful input y'all might have!
thanks

 

[hopefloats]

my girls are the worst noise makers during intros.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTE0vXM7ou8

the real action with the girls is about 2 minutes in. We had a few fights with the girls. I seriously think we had more with them than half my boys. Girls like to take it on for a long time and keep at it. at 3:53 you can see bindi pinning the school girl. My girls rarely bit even during a rat ball. Most rat balls iwth my girls was because the one chasing wanted them to groom them and the one running refused.

Evie will probably be like my bindi or isis, as long as she isnt causing to much drama or actually biting, then I wouldnt worry to much. I had to do smaller shorter intros with the girls to get them back in the group it was utter chaos when they got sick.

the video looked good but the good stuff always happens when Mom turns off the camera.

 

[jorats]

I wish you would have gotten the fight on video cause it looked like it was going good. The only ones I would think would be an issue is with Brenna but nothing major. She's pretty upset about the tub I think.
I wish I knew what was the circumstance of Evie and WeePew and their fight. Sometimes another rat can set off a fight with two others. Hard to explain...

 

[Petunia]

thanks Peggy and Joanne

well part of the thing is that I had a girl, Clair, who inflicted more than a dozen bites on another one (Cookie) during an intro, so I get very nervous when they even flip each other, wondering if it will suddenly turn into one of those horrible balls.

here's a photo of what Cookie looked like (after the vet shaved her and put glue on the bites....???)

she had bites all over the other side as well:

this is how the cookie crumbles by catnapt, on Flickr

this took Clair only seconds to do.

so, I'm a wee bit gun shy I guess you'd say.

I think I may have to do split intros because what happened was there was a series of "fights' that broke out, not just the ones with NewPew....
they were pairing up and having fights, one after the other. :gaah:

Teddy will get ticked off if anyone runs around too fast, he seems to claim all open space as his own...?
he doesn't/hasn't hurt anyone but he will go from one rat to another, pinning them down one by one, and then after that I might have like, Owen and Brenna going at it, or Evie and Owen, etc
He can get really charged up, but the thing that really gets me, is the little stinker will come over to me when I call him and give me kisses,
then want to take off and do it again.

Should I just be letting him do this stuff? It scares the little sisters (Brenna and Smidgen) They will run off and hide or come to me for protection. So I try to calm him down and give him a time out, but it looks like he's taking those the other way. I didnt' have a time out cage before but I have something I can use now.

anyway most of the time they all get along pretty well. Most of the tiffs are silent, in fact, I will walk by and see one on top of the other and there hadn't been a peep out of anyone lol


But here we have a new girl and I don't want her to get hurt.

she did stand her ground with Evie, and it looked like she'd probably be able to handle Owen ok.
so I'm thinking I'll put NewPew and Evie and Owen together first, what do you think?

I'll video tape as much as I can but at some point I may feel the need to drop the camera just in case :giggle:

 

[jorats]

Once in a while there will be a neurotic rat that doesn't follow the norm. Clair was one such rat.

Teddy must be alpha. He goes around and reminds everyone. I wouldn't stop him from doing his job.
In the video, NewPew looks like she likes everyone. They would pass near her and she would lick them. Nobody was pouffy except Brenna.
I'll wait for the new videos to see how it progresses. But I would have the intros with all of them together. But if you are more comfortable doing it in parts, that's ok too. It will just take much longer.

 

[Petunia]

ok thanks Joanne!
I'll keep it in mind that what happened with Clair was out of the ordinary.....

but it was an experience that really sticks with you, you know? :?

This little girly must have spent a lot of time in someones hood- I have had her in the bonding scarf and she prefers to be in the back LOL

I don't think she had toys or hammocks, those all seemed to be new to her. It took her a long time to realize there was two levels.
I'm guessing she was in a tank or small one level cage.

still haven't seen enough of her to know her personality, so she may be "new girl" for a while longer til she tells me her name!
:giggle:

 

[jorats]

In the video, she seems very laid back to me. Takes things in stride. Enjoys rats for sure, with all those licks. A happy girl.

 

[Petunia]

here is the first part of tonight's intros, I did just Owen and Evie and new girl, Renee- because she seems a bit overwhelmed

in the beginning the poor little lady is fear pooping and then steps in it, I stopped filming to clean off her foot (she was kind enough to race around my neck and leave that poop all over my neck and shirt and arm and well you get the idea lol Usually doesn't bother me too much but fear poop smell soooo bad, I was gagging)
http://youtu.be/TWNIrRsijLo

the rest of the videos are uploading, there's at least an hour left before they're gonna be up

The card filled up so I didn't get the best part, of course!!


Joanne, enjoys other rats? I think she's starved for their company. what happened tonight brought tears to my eyes.
She was so happy to have their company, she licked both of them all over. and then, after Owen sat and boggled like crazy after she'd boggled like crazy,
Evie came over and pushed herself alongside Owen
and this little girl draped herself across Evie's back and lay there as if she was holding on to Evie for dear life.

I hope to have her in with Evie and Owen by tomorrow night, if all continues to go well.


more of the videos from this session:
http://youtu.be/vLOXxKGwJDU

http://youtu.be/1N4z2_FuK5w


in this one Renee was just starting to boggle, when my camera signaled that the media card was full - <if you put it on full screen you can see the very start of her boggling>
:gaah:
Owen boggles after this and then Renee drapes herself over Evie, etc as mentioned above

http://youtu.be/o2G0cn1l4Oo

 

[jorats]

Oh wow... She so needs buddies. That last video, says it all.
And what gets me, are people who have one rat and they say: oh he's fine, he loves being alone. What they don't know is how their rat would be with buddies. Renee (very pretty name!) is such a lucky little girl.
I think these intros with Evie and Owen are a complete success.

 

[Petunia]

whew
so how soon can I move them in together? :cheeky:

I was thinking I'd get them out with some toys and see how that goes this morning, and if they seem ok, put them in a scrubbed out cage with all new stuff tonight...?

or am I moving too fast? Owen is pretty gentle and Evie has slowed down a bit since her younger wilder days

I wanted her (Renee) to have friends before she spent much more time with alpha Teddy, so she wouldn't be overwhelmed by how intense he can be.

 

[lilspaz68]

Brenna seems to be nervous in the tub but I'd like to see how she does on table intros. As Jo said let Teddy do his thing, he looks to be a gentle, quiet alpha but he knows his job. I think the intro looks wonderful, grooming, exploring, eating, etc.

The table intro was sooo good, and seeing that lovely new girl licking like that, relaxed, confident and happy. She's got quite the gentle loving vibe and I think that will affect your rats and they will all love her in the end...how could they not?? I think your new girl is going to be a very special addition to your Herd.

 

[Petunia]

oh sorry I should have clarified, I have two cages, a dble CN and a single
I was going to put Renee, Evie and Owen together in the new single first and then do the whole group intros more slowly.

I wanted to get Renee in with buddies as fast as possible and it seemed the best way to do that was to pick the rats I felt were least threatening.

 

[lilspaz68]

I wouldn't. I would continue as you are. See if Brenna is more relaxed on the table...she seemd to be reacting to the tub not the new girl IMO. Try new girl with Brenna, Teddy and Smidgen next...Teddy should keep those 2 girls in check, and new girl should lick them into submission Once that is well add them all in, I seriously don't see any need to separate groups of rats, since they are dong soooo well. The smaller group intro's are easier for you. New girl sure isnt stressed by any of the rats

 

[Petunia]

oh ok LOL

I got Renee on Thursday, am I going too fast?

 

[jorats]

No, you are going at the right speed. The rats will let you know if you are going to fast.
I agree with Shelagh, I'm pretty sure Brenna as reacting to the tub and not Renee. Rats are silly in that their stress is let out on anyone near them, no matter the source of it.

 

[Petunia]

OK thank you all so much!

this little girl looks like she's gonna be a ton of fun.

:dance:

 

[Petunia]

another table intro, with everyone and it was quite uneventful =)
they spent a lot of time huddled together after these videos were taken (again, my media card filled up fast- I need a new card!)
Brenna puffed up a few times but calmed down a lot after reassuring her. Smidgen puffed up once or twice too but calmed down quickly as well.

http://youtu.be/7d72jBCzrug
http://youtu.be/DrsjrWsEjtA
http://youtu.be/-vWm9FU8ZAs

I got bored and gave them a box on it's side- everyone immediately moved inside that. :lol:
Teddy came back out to stand guard, and Evie and Renee had "words" (they both stood on their back legs and played patty cake LOL but it didn't last long)
the only time I saw Renee be the aggressor was with Smidgen, she got Smidge over on her side, never flipped her all the way, and held her there for a little bit, then groomed her and let her up.

really, pretty boring! and I was so worried. :roll:

They'll get more toys next time. In the meantime, I have the two cages very close to each other so everyone can see and smell each other; it's really helped Renee feel more comfortable.


still not sure about the little one's name, I call her Lovie more than anything else :lol:
so that might end up being her name, even though it's pretty generic.

I don't call anyone else that, I call Teddy my Mumma's boy, Owen is Hey Oh! Smidgen and Brenna are my good girls, or my sweeties, Evie is my pretty baby
The boys are often referred to as my big boys. I don't think I've ever used the term "Lovie" with any other rat, so this little girl may get stuck with that.

 

[Petunia]

ok an important bit of information: i fell about two weeks ago and haven't quite recovered, and yesterday I did a bit too much (all i did was vacuum for pete's sake!) today I can barely move, and def can NOT move fast.

so I put everyone on the kitchen table with some toys and it was going great.
Figured I could clean out the cages at the same time, but like i said, i'm moving very slowly.

teddy kept coming over to the edge of the table trying to get to me (see why I call him my mumma's boy? :lol: i don't mean that in a derogatory way at all, i think its sweet and i am very touched by it)

well he jumped off the table!! he was very calm on the kitchen floor, a place he's never been before, and he headed straight for the rat room

I scooped him up and put everyone back in the partly cleaned out cages, put the toys back and here i am, wanting to ,lay down cuz my back and SI joint are in really bad shape, i've been in a lot of pain for a couple of weeks now and well......

how awful would it be to clean out one cage completely and put them all in it without further table intros?

I can't use the bed with my back the way it is, it's too low- even the table is hard on my back. I can't do the rat room floor because the room is too big and i couldn't move fast enough if someone was in danger or whatever

i already know that all of my guys will leap off any thing set up in the rat room so putting a table in there wouldn't work

so- i'm thinking, clean out the new cage completely, put a litter box and a liners and food (anything else??)
and put all six in there and see how it goes

would that be horrible? because with my back in the shape it's in, and Teddy leaping off the table, I don't see too many other options

 

[lilspaz68]

You can definitely try it.

 

[jorats]

You can try it. The rats will let you know if it's too soon for it but it does seem like everything is going very well.