Crossing Fingers, Beau may be exactly what we've been looking for for Goliath

So while I've been dealing with some things, the last two days with Beau here have been pretty nice. He's very very skittish, but calms if you've held him for over 20 minutes or so. He jumps at every unexpected sound and freaks out if Jezebel comes near (she's curious and actually kinda motherly).

However, Loki brought Goliath out and was giving him out time on his chair and letting Jezebel near and everything and since we moved quick before we got Beau to the rescue or a home, they are now in the same airspace so any possible contagion is already well... possible.

Goliath is a very chill rat and is somewhere over a year old and hasn't had another rat companion since I've ever heard. He has a scar on his side and a missing finger to say that's not true, but he's somewhere over a year. Very chill and deserves a buddy.

Since they are already now in the same airspace and Beau is around the age that I was curious to see would work with Goliath, I sat next to Loki in a computer chair and Goliath got curious and sniffed around him. No puffing. No hissing. No big bad reactions.

And it got Beau's attention. He peeped out from in my spare tank top he was cuddled into in my lap and was curious about Goliath and almost went into Loki's lap, but Loki had Jezebel and Hunter in there as well so that was a no.

No hissing. No puffing. No outward signs of aggression or fear. Just curiosity.

Beau is around the fur-molty stage so he's not old at all. Nervous and scared of humans for the most part, but he looked like he wanted to snuggle up to Goliath.

Thoughts?

If Beau is younger but not too hormonal he may do good with a role model. Definitely would be careful if he is very very young, but of he's old enough, eh, you never know. Slow and steady.

If Beau is moulting, he might be 8 weeks old, which is a good age to intro. It's quite promising and it will definitely help a skittish rat to have a strong secure role model.

Alright, question now.

Beau is getting a little better, not QUITE as skittish *Yay*.

I let Goliath and Beau have supervised play time in the bathroom. Beau would hide on me and Goliath would be climbing the temp cage (I put it in there so I could throw Beau in there in a need to separate them issue). Goliath would hide on me, Beau would hide in a corner.

Plop them near each other and Goliath gets kinda still. And then turns and scuttles back to me. No severe fear showing, but it's kinda obvious that he's very nervous.

Advice?

Is this the very first encounter... if so, that's pretty much normal. New environments are always scary.

Technically with the lap test with Goliath the day before it would be kinda a second encounter, but yea, I guess that would be normal.
Goliath's last intro was with Flux where he got bit open so he may be leery naturally anyway.

Okay, second official intro in bathroom, this time in the tub. Had some peas in there with them.

Goliath was a bit on the 'freeze and sit' side for a little bit, but let Beau get close and stay close (Beau didn't wanna get too far away from him).
After a bit, Goliath let Beau start to groom him a tiny bit and eventually let him stick his nose in Goliath's ear and go to town grooming his ear, was hilarious to look at.

Goliath finally cooled off enough to eat a pea. After a minute or so, Beau went and got a pea.
Goliath took some peas from my hand and went to town on them, I offered Beau one and he refused. After Goliath took a few more peas he got curious and tested my hand, licked my fingers where the water from the canned peas was and then took the pea from me.

This coming from the wee one who won't even sniff food if it's near me.

Seems to be going okay so far *crossing fingers*

Beau, I think Day2 of us having him. He peeked his head out long enough for me to snap a pic and then was huddled back up and didn't look up or do much of anything until I put him away.


Bad picture, but we have HORRIBLE lighting in our bathroom and my phone has neither good camera capability nor a flash.
But here is yesterday intro with Goliath. Cutest picture evar! They made a heart <3

I'm glad it seems to be going well.

That is great. Now don't get discouraged if day 3 or 4, there could be a set back, but keep persevering.

Sigh. Loki is being a butt now. He was all for it when they first met when Goliath was on his lap and sniffing the wee one Beau, now he has ants in his pants cause we were trying to either rehome the little bugger ourselves or get him to the local rat rescue.

But he is literally the perfect age I was theorizing would work with Goliath. And it has been so far.

Intro again today ended up with lots of gentle grooming from Beau to Goliath and Goliath even ended up grooming Beau. Beau squeaked once when he groomed a little close to his foot, but Goliath stopped and then groomed a different area on him and then they randomly waddled (I swear Goliath waddles, not walks) this way and that, not always together, but sometimes.

The grooming makes me optimistic and kinda happy. 3 is my perfect limit for rats right now and Beau seems to be just what Goliath needs, an energetic, non aggressive baby boy.

Now if Loki will stop being a butt... Afterall he's the one that told me again and again to keep Hunter (the kitten I had to bottle feed for a few weeks when we found him outside at roughly 3 weeks). And now he's kinda being a butt over this. -_-

So it turns out that Loki is more worried about adding the baby as overstressing Goliath than anything else apparently. He's worried about Goliath because he is not a young buck to bounce back from every little thing life throws at him.

When Goliath came to us, his previous owners had said they had had him for a year and that he had been alone his whole life. I don't believe it as he's missing a digit on a front paw and has a noticeable scar on one side, but I do believe that for most of his life, he has been alone.

Loki does not want the baby to overstimulate Goliath and cause him stress because Loki fears Goliath's age.

He seems to have a willingness to come around about intros between the two again when I told him flat out that Goliath Boggled. Goliath boggled when Beau came over and groomed him and after Goliath had groomed him back. He seemed startled at it, but unsure and kinda happy.

We will do more intros in another day or so (unless I do against the promise I made to give Goliath a few days before another intro) and hopefully will go from there

For now... it's cage cleaning time o_o 3 not-so-tiny cages to clean. Weeeeee

Some oldies absolutely adore young rats. My mom had an old girl, almost 3 years old, lose all her cage buddies. My mom worried that Ninja might not want to join the other group of younger rats. But in the end she tried it and it was a match made in heaven. Ninja become much happier and cozier with her new buddies.

Yea, I'm gonna give it till tomorrow and then we'll do another Intro and I'll let him be there to watch them and see if Goliath boggles again.

Another successful intro during Goliath's big cage clean. There was cleaning, bruxing and forcing Beau to stay still while Goliath groomed him. Avidly groomed each other for a few bits, it was cute. Put some of Goliath's hide stuff in there for play stuffs and still no adverse reactions.

How many intros before I put them in the same cage?

I usually do about a week and then I do a big cage scrub down and change up the "furniture" so the cage is unrecognizable to them.

I will give Loki a few more days of intros where he can watch and see them interact in the tub and see if that makes him more comfortable with it before we do that. Partially cause I JUST cleaned Goliath's cage yesterday >.>

He's also worried about adding another animal onto our other 4 because that can potentially mean more bills. But honestly, with not knowing Goliath's age and knowing he is at -least- 1 1/2, I'd like to get him a friend. Even if that friend was only supposed to be a rescue, foster, give to a rescue group situation.

Goliath really needs a buddy for a full, happy and healthy life. That's how rats live. They are made to live in colonies and need that companionship.

Okay, so deal is that we can keep Beau so long as I don't ever pull any rescues even just being travel between one person and another again because he doesn't want this to happen again. I.e. rescue and poof it's a pet.

I can't -fault- him really for saying this, but at the same time, he's the one that pushed me to keep Hunter (our kitten who I had to bottle feed for 3 weeks when we got him). So it's frustrating, but Beau seems a perfect fit for Goliath so they hopefully should be in a single cage here in a few days.

Yay! Good news for both boys.