Unepuce
Well-Known Member
On January 15, I brought home 2 little 5 month old sisters.
Cookie, has a very large eye that I know I will eventually have to get removed (it is being treated as an abcess, but after a month, still no improvement :?). Plus, I found out about 2 weeks ago that I will have to get her teeth cut on a regular basis... poor little baby. Cookie is very social and playful, she will tease other rats, especially Lili, to the point where they lose patience and snap at her. She looks like she wants to be alpha, but the second she is told "no you're not", she runs away and hide. During out time, she runs everywhere and nowhere, happy, like she doesn't have a care in the world. Here's Cookie:
Biscotte is totally different. She is very shy, very nervous, very fearful of all rats but her sister. She trusts her humans, and will spend most of her out time hidden behind a cushion or squished to one of her humans. After a while, she will become a social butterfly and will follow her sister along and try and tease the other girls. Here's Biscotte:
As I posted earlier in my successfull intro post, my crew has been living together for a week now. My two boys are getting along pretty well (they are sharing the big house with my older girls since last evening), my two older girls are no issue at all, Biscotte and Cookie get along perfectly well together but - ever since I started intro, there's been that thing between Lili and Cookie that does not resorb. I suspect Cookie to challenge Lili as the alpha female, but I am not knowledgeable enough to know for sure. Not one day passes without a few fights and althought I try to supervise when I'm around, I do my best not to intervene and let them resolve things on their own. To me, 2 weeks seems like a long time, but hey, I'm willing to give them all the time they need. My real issue is somewhere else...
My pushy Cookie and fearful Cocotte are being singled out. After everyone moved into the big CN, it soon became obvious that my old crew would live in the top cage, and the new girls in the bottom one. The ones on the top would go down once in a while, but never really stay (besides Pollux, who was living with the newbies for a week before I opened up the cage) and Cookie will go up to explore but never stay to sleep. Biscotte... well... Biscotte goes in the top cage when I pick up her and bring her for breakfast and supper.
Did I bring everyone together too fast? How can I get Cookie and Biscotte to relax - Cookie to stop provoking the other rats and Biscotte to stop being scared of them? Now that my 4 olders are sleeping together in the big house on the top floor, seeing my two little girls in their Spoutnik on the bottom pan just breaks my heart...
Cookie, has a very large eye that I know I will eventually have to get removed (it is being treated as an abcess, but after a month, still no improvement :?). Plus, I found out about 2 weeks ago that I will have to get her teeth cut on a regular basis... poor little baby. Cookie is very social and playful, she will tease other rats, especially Lili, to the point where they lose patience and snap at her. She looks like she wants to be alpha, but the second she is told "no you're not", she runs away and hide. During out time, she runs everywhere and nowhere, happy, like she doesn't have a care in the world. Here's Cookie:
Biscotte is totally different. She is very shy, very nervous, very fearful of all rats but her sister. She trusts her humans, and will spend most of her out time hidden behind a cushion or squished to one of her humans. After a while, she will become a social butterfly and will follow her sister along and try and tease the other girls. Here's Biscotte:
As I posted earlier in my successfull intro post, my crew has been living together for a week now. My two boys are getting along pretty well (they are sharing the big house with my older girls since last evening), my two older girls are no issue at all, Biscotte and Cookie get along perfectly well together but - ever since I started intro, there's been that thing between Lili and Cookie that does not resorb. I suspect Cookie to challenge Lili as the alpha female, but I am not knowledgeable enough to know for sure. Not one day passes without a few fights and althought I try to supervise when I'm around, I do my best not to intervene and let them resolve things on their own. To me, 2 weeks seems like a long time, but hey, I'm willing to give them all the time they need. My real issue is somewhere else...
My pushy Cookie and fearful Cocotte are being singled out. After everyone moved into the big CN, it soon became obvious that my old crew would live in the top cage, and the new girls in the bottom one. The ones on the top would go down once in a while, but never really stay (besides Pollux, who was living with the newbies for a week before I opened up the cage) and Cookie will go up to explore but never stay to sleep. Biscotte... well... Biscotte goes in the top cage when I pick up her and bring her for breakfast and supper.
Did I bring everyone together too fast? How can I get Cookie and Biscotte to relax - Cookie to stop provoking the other rats and Biscotte to stop being scared of them? Now that my 4 olders are sleeping together in the big house on the top floor, seeing my two little girls in their Spoutnik on the bottom pan just breaks my heart...
