Let the intros begin

[MomRat]

Jo- Quilt is neutered, and all of them are being treated for the nasty case of Cheyletiella that Dominic has.

Okay, so Dominic is doing all of the 'shoving himself under other rats asking for grooming'. He's not receiving much grooming though - The other pair have never really groomed each other much, it seems to be a habit they never learned at the petstore, and so they aren't doing it for him. =( Gregory's freezing habit has occurred consistently since we got them, and although he's doing it less when we pet him, it is still his primary response, especially in the Bathtub, to Dominic, and he can remain that way for many long minutes after the other rat has moved on-I usually get tired and poke him to snap him out of it. Quilt is neutered and perfectly happy to be the Omega of the colony, he just wants to cuddle, and for Dominic to quit sniffing at what is left of his manhood. =/

I keep getting my hopes up and getting let down. A week of bathtub intros was looking up, they kept piling together to cuddle after the first 5 minutes or so, no scuffles at all, started back to non-neutral territory(the couch) and they'd fight. Dom and Greg don't even interact in the tub(Quilt is always inbetween them for cuddles) and then they get on the couch and can't decide who is boss, and inevitably scuffle. I dumped them into the tub the other day to chill out after a fight, and they fought in the TUB! They're driving me crazy!

I made floor covers and hammocks for the brand spanking new CN today - we want to put them into it as purely neutral territory, so it's getting ALL new stuff at first. But I just don't know what to do with putting them all in there - we really don't want to have to split it! But, once we use it for a neutral all-day heavily watched intro, it's not really neutral anymore, right? Intros in there during the day, back in their own cages at night... I don't know how to be comfortable leaving them alone together. This is really frustrating. =(

 

[jorats]

Do the scuffles still involve bites and gashes?

They need to work it out. That's great that Quilt is happy being omega. How old is Dominic? any chance you can get him neutered?

Once you let them play in the new CN, it will be familiar ground. I think I would go ahead and try it, all depending on how bad the scuffles on the couch are though.

 

[MomRat]

Dominic is already heading toward the two year mark, if we're going to neuter anyone it will be Gregory, who is still under a year, we think. Our E-vet budget does not include neuters, unless massive bloodloss is occurring as with Quilt. Scuffles on the couch have been being broken up before anymore than hair loss can occur... we're afraid to let the flailing balls of fluff fight any longer than that...

 

[jorats]

That makes sense... keep plugging away at it.

 

[MomRat]

So, I finished Hammocking and Linering the new CN this morning, and we put the boys all in around Noon... some pretty noisy scuffles but no injury/fur loss so far, and with only three of them in a double there's lots of room to get away from each other.

How do we make the call to leave them together or put them back in their little cages overnight? This is so totally our first time with this... It's heartening to see them in there, out of those little cages, but we don't want to wake up to bloodshed either. =(

 

[jorats]

You gotta go with your gut. If I could observe them I'd be able to tell you right away.
If they stay together in the cage with no real fighting for the better part of the day then I'd say it's safe to leave them in.

 

[MomRat]

Our guts said we were really uncertain, but we went with it - left them together for the night.(we realized, if we needed to separate them, we could just partition the cage, instead of putting them in the little cages. But, we were afraid that would create 'territory') Woke up this morning to everyone sleeping in separate hammocks, but no injuries. They're still scuffling when awake though - we have the cage where they can just go from it to the couch and back freely during the day, and there has been poofing and sidestepping still - can we consider them introed? Continue leaving them together at night, and just accept that they may never be a fully cuddling functional group, but be satisfied with a keeping of the peace? With the CN, we're suffering from a bit of GGMR, but at this rate, we're not going to be comfortable taking in more until somebody passes on... =(

 

[jorats]

Yep, I'd consider them introed. :joy:
You may not find them cuddling now nor in a month from now but down the road you might wake up one morning and have a heart melting moment.

 

[user 1405]

I can talk from experience on that one. Gizmo and Chester didn't quite get along right off the bat (no fights, but Gizmo was terrified of friendly ole Chester), but after 2-3 weeks they started sleeping and eating together. No scuffles so far, the odd ball shoving and squeaking match, but that's it.