Hello,
I recently took on a rescue rat and i've just attempted intros with my resident boys for the first time, and im looking for some advice/thoughts on how it went from people with experience as its my first time ever!
In the run up to today they have been living side by side in their cages, i've also swapped fleeces between cages and even swapped the ratties between cages, i've been doing this for about 5 weeks now, so today was the first time they've properly met.
I introduced them in the shower tray since we dont have a bath, and i had a bowl of porridge in the middle.
For the first few seconds all was calm, then Archie (the newbie) poofed up his fur and tried to dominate everyone, there was a small scuffle between him and Ollie, i noticed afterwards that he actually broke Ollie's skin but i dont know if that was intentional or not, Ollie's a double rex and is often accidentally scratched during play/scuffles. I stopped the scuffle with a towel and Archie backed off but stayed poofed up, my other 2 boys Loki and Misha basically sat frozen the whole time, when Archie went near them and tried to dominate Misha huffed and sqeaked at him but there was no scuffle, and Loki stood up and put his foot on Archie's head, but again no scuffle.
Archie then wandered around (still poofed up) and i removed him and put them all back in their cages, Loki and Misha seemed quite stressed so i didnt want to draw it out too long, they were together for about 10 minutes in total.
There was no poofing up from my resident boys at all, they mostly sat still or had a little wash, Ollie was the only one to eat a little porridge.
Personally i dont think this was a great intro... so i wanted some opinions before i try again!
My resident boys are all 1 year 6 months and are brothers, there isn't really a single dominant one at the moment.
Archie is around 1 year old and as far as i know he has lived with rats before.
They're all un-neutered currently.
Any advice gratefully received!
I recently took on a rescue rat and i've just attempted intros with my resident boys for the first time, and im looking for some advice/thoughts on how it went from people with experience as its my first time ever!
In the run up to today they have been living side by side in their cages, i've also swapped fleeces between cages and even swapped the ratties between cages, i've been doing this for about 5 weeks now, so today was the first time they've properly met.
I introduced them in the shower tray since we dont have a bath, and i had a bowl of porridge in the middle.
For the first few seconds all was calm, then Archie (the newbie) poofed up his fur and tried to dominate everyone, there was a small scuffle between him and Ollie, i noticed afterwards that he actually broke Ollie's skin but i dont know if that was intentional or not, Ollie's a double rex and is often accidentally scratched during play/scuffles. I stopped the scuffle with a towel and Archie backed off but stayed poofed up, my other 2 boys Loki and Misha basically sat frozen the whole time, when Archie went near them and tried to dominate Misha huffed and sqeaked at him but there was no scuffle, and Loki stood up and put his foot on Archie's head, but again no scuffle.
Archie then wandered around (still poofed up) and i removed him and put them all back in their cages, Loki and Misha seemed quite stressed so i didnt want to draw it out too long, they were together for about 10 minutes in total.
There was no poofing up from my resident boys at all, they mostly sat still or had a little wash, Ollie was the only one to eat a little porridge.
Personally i dont think this was a great intro... so i wanted some opinions before i try again!
My resident boys are all 1 year 6 months and are brothers, there isn't really a single dominant one at the moment.
Archie is around 1 year old and as far as i know he has lived with rats before.
They're all un-neutered currently.
Any advice gratefully received!