Well, I've never done this before but I've done a considerable amount of research. I have two 8 week old male rats and two older males that I am trying to introduce. I haven't tried much because I didn't get far.
One of my older rats, Simon, did great with his intro. Just sniffing and scurrying around with the younger rats. I got them to all go together too and they were still fine. I only did it once because today I tried intros with Luffy, my grumpier older rat.
Well, that didn't go so hot.
It seemed fine at first, Quincy(the younger rat who I chose to intro first), was very calm and let Luffy sniff him. But, when he tried to sniff Luffy a fight broke out and they ended up in rat ball. Nobody was hurt, but I ended the intro there. I'm not quite sure where to go from here and what steps I need to take to get everyone to get along. I feel like once the group is together, it will balance out. The young rats will have each other and Simon to play with and that will draw attention away from Luffy who seems very solitary.
Help? ._.
Additional Info: Luffy doesn't seem to ever injure other rats, the most he's done is pull out tufts of hair from Simon but he's never injured him worse than that. But I can tell it is aggression because he puffs himself up and huffs/breaths heavily. He's such a grump.
I am doing it on the floor of my room, they all usually hang out on the bed. Maybe I should change to a completely different room?
One of my older rats, Simon, did great with his intro. Just sniffing and scurrying around with the younger rats. I got them to all go together too and they were still fine. I only did it once because today I tried intros with Luffy, my grumpier older rat.
Well, that didn't go so hot.
It seemed fine at first, Quincy(the younger rat who I chose to intro first), was very calm and let Luffy sniff him. But, when he tried to sniff Luffy a fight broke out and they ended up in rat ball. Nobody was hurt, but I ended the intro there. I'm not quite sure where to go from here and what steps I need to take to get everyone to get along. I feel like once the group is together, it will balance out. The young rats will have each other and Simon to play with and that will draw attention away from Luffy who seems very solitary.
Help? ._.
Additional Info: Luffy doesn't seem to ever injure other rats, the most he's done is pull out tufts of hair from Simon but he's never injured him worse than that. But I can tell it is aggression because he puffs himself up and huffs/breaths heavily. He's such a grump.
I am doing it on the floor of my room, they all usually hang out on the bed. Maybe I should change to a completely different room?
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