Ratty Introduction Issue

Gonna post this in the right place now So on monday will be 4 weeks since we rescued two baby rats raven and ceci and I had them in a tank because little ceci was just 3 weeks old and needed bottle fed and I wanted to slowly introduce them to the big girls. The oldest girls gabby and zoey don't mind them at all however summer and lexi don't mind raven but are little thugs with ceci. They corner her and attack her and have to be pulled out of the cage. I have had to keep them in our spare cage because the bar spacing is to wide for the little ratties to be in it. I have been at this introduction thing for about 7-8 days now and yesterday I thought we had some progress and they even had free range time together with no problems but I stopped watching them for a minute to talk to my daughter and they went after her again.So I did a test and I watched them for about 10 minutes and no issues and then I turned my attention away again and once again after about a minute they went back after her.Could it just be a coincidence that it happened like that or are they just trying to play nice cause they know I will put them back into their cage for doing it? I don't want this to have to be a permanent thing for them cause I can tell they miss being with their momma gabby and the sad puppy dog looks I got sometimes from them breaks my heart What am I doing wrong?

It's only a huge coincidence that the older girls go after Ceci when you are not looking.
How old are the older girls and where are the intros taking place? Ceci is 7 weeks old now? When they go after her, what does Ceci do and do they end up hurting her, like with gashes and blood?
What does Raven do when this is happening?

They are 6 months old and ceci will be 7 weeks on monday. The first couple of times happened in the big cage but now they happen on my bed. It is random like ceci can be walking by them and get a sniff and then they will grab her and hold her down and bite her and if she gets loose from them she runs for her poor life where they chase her down. Lexi goes one way and summer the other to make sure they can corner her. I haven't seen any cuts as of yet but I have had to basically peel her off the side of the cage because she was to terrified to move and the sound she makes when they are doing it are just aweful it starts as a high pitch squeak to a lower pitch like scream..it is horrible.Raven like the other girls goes to see what the commotion is but they don't get involved.

RatPack said:

They are 6 months old and ceci will be 7 weeks on monday. The first couple of times happened in the big cage but now they happen on my bed. It is random like ceci can be walking by them and get a sniff and then they will grab her and hold her down and bite her and if she gets loose from them she runs for her poor life where they chase her down. Lexi goes one way and summer the other to make sure they can corner her. I haven't seen any cuts as of yet but I have had to basically peel her off the side of the cage because she was to terrified to move and the sound she makes when they are doing it are just aweful it starts as a high pitch squeak to a lower pitch like scream..it is horrible.Raven like the other girls goes to see what the commotion is but they don't get involved.

Click to expand...

I just finished introducing 11 girls that wanted to kill eachother. What I did was bath them in the same shampoo. I used oil and dishsoap because they had lice. Then i put them all in a cage that is big enough for them to have personally space, but not huge. I only added three accessories for eleven of them and fed them right away. It took about a half hour after they ate for everyone to curl up with rats they've never met. Then after about a day i added a few more things. Then after another day they all moved in to the dfn and I had no problems. But make sure you really clean the cage before putting them in together

Is half of the critter nation to big to do this in for 6 girls? should I use the spare cage which is 2ftx2ft and 26 inches tall?

When doing intros, there shouldn't be any cage around. Intros should begin on neutral ground where no rats have ever been. That's the best place to meet. You do that for a few days and then move them onto familiar ground, their regular play area, after a few days, you scrub down the cage and move them in.

jorats said:

When doing intros, there shouldn't be any cage around. Intros should begin on neutral ground where no rats have ever been. That's the best place to meet. You do that for a few days and then move them onto familiar ground, their regular play area, after a few days, you scrub down the cage and move them in.

Click to expand...

Thats right i forgot to mention that. They should be introduced out of the cage. My girls had play times together until the fights stopped. But instead of moving them into one of their previous cages i find it easier to do it in a cage neither rats have lived in. But ofcourse thats not always possible

Just wanted everyone to know that we are a little over 24 hrs now of all girls peacefully existing in the cage together Thanks for the advice cause without I think we would still be beating our heads off the wall which is no fun at all. Now I can focus on the getting the boys their own cage and letting the girls have full run of the DCN

That's great news!!