Intro Newbie

Aaah, boy.

Okay, where to start. I've never had to do an intro before. My rats were 11 weeks when I got them so they were easy peasy put them in a cage together. Now that Zephye has passed away Nemo is left alone.

Nemo is a weird rat and doesn't seem to understand other rats well. Anyways, I have Vincent who came from another owner and he's about 5-6 months old.

I've done 4 neutral territory intros. One of them they had a rolling scuffle and I separated them and didn't attempt an intro for 2 weeks. Recently they have been okay with each other, no bites. One small scrap but nothing bad. They even groomed each other a liiittle.
They also had their cages near each other, and I did the cage swap too. They've been near each other's cage's for about a month now.

Just a few questions.
How long should each intro last? I usually just let them go for about 20 minutes or so.

How should they be acting before I can put them in a cage together?

Vincent keeps trying to put his head under Nemo's body, why is that?

Those are the few questions I can think of right now. I'll probably ask more in a bit. Thanks in advance!

I like to do intros for an hour at a time. The reason being, I like to see them together when they are tired. Many times, tired rats will just say screw it and go cuddle together.
I also like to do intros on table tops. I find it's easier for me to watch them and also the rats seem better on a table top than in the bath tub.
Before rats move in together, I usually wait to see if they can go about their business without caring about the other's presence near them and this needs to be on a familiar "play" area of theirs.
Vincent is alpha if he's trying to put his head under Nemo. What does Nemo do when Vincent does this? Sounds like Vincent is a good boy. Instead of going for the mount and over groom the neck, he puts his head under.

jorats said:

I like to do intros for an hour at a time. The reason being, I like to see them together when they are tired. Many times, tired rats will just say screw it and go cuddle together.
I also like to do intros on table tops. I find it's easier for me to watch them and also the rats seem better on a table top than in the bath tub.
Before rats move in together, I usually wait to see if they can go about their business without caring about the other's presence near them and this needs to be on a familiar "play" area of theirs.
Vincent is alpha if he's trying to put his head under Nemo. What does Nemo do when Vincent does this? Sounds like Vincent is a good boy. Instead of going for the mount and over groom the neck, he puts his head under.

Click to expand...

When Vincent puts his head under Nemo, Nemo doesn't do anything. He sort of just stands there not moving. They stayed liked thar together for a while too. He also lifts his head when Vincent goes near him.

I did do a table top intro but Vincent pushed Nemo off twice >_> by accident but still...

Okay, so I did another intro today. It went not as well as the last one... I just tried the bathroom floor rather than the tub this time. They got into a tussle with one another, no blood, no squeaks though. After I broke that up Nemo was terrified of Vincent. He would lift his head up for Vincent if he approached but then bolted away for a while. Then Vincent started being scared of being near Nemo, where he would squeak any time Nemo came near him... gah. At one point Vincent bolted to hid under Nemo for some reason... and they groomed a little and then it was back to being scared of each other. x-x I really wish there was a detailed guide to rat interactions for intros.

Doesn't sound too bad. It's hard to do a step by step intro because each rat and each intro are all unique. But the beauty of that is that we can try many different things.
If your bathroom floor very big? I mean is the area big? That alone can spook the rats. But keep at it. You'll have good days and not so good day but we need to get through those to get to the really really good days.

It's not huge by any means, it's not the smallest so maybe twice the size of the bathtub area they were playing in before. I just don't want them to feel scared of each other from misunderstanding one another :c I really hope they can figure each other out and be buddies soon.

Keep at it!

:worry: sigh, so intros today weren't great again. Nemo now flinches any time Vincent goes near him, which makes Vincent go from curious to aggressive. Nemo got bit on the base of his tail and there was blood this time. I'm not sure how to prevent this though, I'm not sure how to make Nemo trust Vincent again.

Can you do your intros on a table top? With nothing on it except yummy food?

I did do that one earlier but they never go for the yummy food. And Vincent ends up pushing Nemo off the table. (Advances towards him and makes Nemo backup). I can try again though.

Yes, and each time Vincent goes for Nemo like to push him, you stop him. Place your hand in front like a wall and say no. When he turns away, have a super duper yummy junk food to give him. Do this each time.

Is avoidance okay for intros? Every time Vincent approaches Nemo even in a friendly manner Nemo just runs away or keeps avoiding Vincent's face.

That's normal and might change with time.

Sigh. I absolutely cannot get these boys to get along. Other than avoiding each other. Vincent goes to sniff Nemo in a friendly manner and Nemo just flinches and backs away. Nemo recently fell on top of Vincent by accident and they got into a fight. Nemo ended up being so scared he bolted right off the bed and I had to put him back home as he wanted nothing to do with Vincent. :disbelief: Nemo is absolutely so scared of Vincent now when he just approaches. I just can't get him to trust him anymore.

Edit: There was no blood during their last spat.

How old are these boys? Any chance you can have Vincent neutered?

I can have Vincent neutered. Vincent is 5 months and Nemo is 1 year 8 months.

I would probably have him done then.