Territorial or Just Scared?!

[kelsey514]

The girls and boys all got together in the same cage on May 26th, when it had been three weeks since the boys' neuters. They've all been getting along well, except Barret and Theodor (the boys) kind of stay away from the girls. Theodor's been venturing out of his house more often but Barret isn't. He's almost always hiding, and always with Theodor unless a girl jumps in on top of him. The last two days I keep hearing this whining squeaking...like a soft cry. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but now every time it happens I see Mackenzie is blocking Barret in somewhere. If he goes in the tube, she follows him. If he goes in the igloo, she follows him...He seems scared and it makes me sad! She's not actually doing anything to him though! The only time they fought (wrestling and lots of screaming but no injury) is when I made them get out of the tube because Barret was crying so much. What should I do? This is how Mackenzie was when Misty first joined the girls cage, but after Misty had the babies she gave up on it.

 

[jorats]

How old are the boys? My Pony will cry like that anytime he gets groomed which is a lot but he certainly is not hating it.
What you could do is get a small "time out" cage and each time Mac is going after Barret, place her in the time out cage for 10 minutes. There should be nothing in the time out cage, not even water.

 

[kelsey514]

The boys are both about three months old, and Mackenzie is about 14 months old. I forgot to mention that Mackenzie gets puffy when this happens too. I'll try that with the cage. Is there anything I can do to help Barret feel more comfortable with the girls?

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

How long did intros last?

 

[jorats]

If you don't see run for his life when Mac goes to him then he's not really that scared of her. Make sure you don't give any attention to Barret when he's being a suck.

 

[kelsey514]

Oops, sorry! My computer wouldn't connect to the internet for two days and I just figured out there is an on/off switch on the outside of my laptop for it! haha
Intros were not long. They had been living in separate halves of the double CN for 2 weeks, then I stuck them all in a carrier with loud music on and there wasn't any fighting. They stayed in there for about 3 hours before going back to their cage. It was about a week before I even noticed this happening.
He doesn't really run for his life but when he sees her coming, he will hide under whatever is closest to him. They seem better today.

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

If this behaviour doesn't calm down then I would definitely suggest taking a step back and following these steps viewtopic.php?f=22&t=406