Introductions so far...

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R

Riana

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2007
Messages
387
Location
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Hello, everyone. I wanted to update you (incase anyone's interested) on the progress I've had with the boys thus far.

I gave the little boys a few days to get used to their new living arrangements, me, etc, before I tried to take them out and meet the older boys. The first time they were all quite good, no major squeaks or scuffles. I think everyone was a little shocked about it, so they kept their distance and just made very mild interaction. Over the next several days they began to really work out a dominance role, and as I figured, Rose was a little strong with the boys. There were two instances when I heard a loud squeal from one of them where I think Rose had pinned them down or handled them roughly, and they got really scared, but there was no blood or extended squeaks.

I find that Rose spends a lot of time following both of the boys (neither one more than the other) and he spends a lot of time power-grooming them. It's gotten that he doesn't always pin them down anymore, but often just holds them and grooms. It still makes the boys squeak though. He also makes them raise their bottoms and he sniffs at their little boy-bits a lot.

I wonder if things are going okay between them all. Guild has been very mellow and accepting of everyone, with only the occassional following and power-grooming. I'm not very concerned, because everybody seems happy, not scared or stressed, etc, but it's still different than when I introduced Guild to Rose.

I just want opinions about how things are going so far. Is there anything I can maybe do or watch or for? I have only had them out together during play-time so far, I don't feel at all ready to put them in the cages together. Their cages are now beside each other on the dresser (about 6 inches apart so there's no chance of grabbing), so I think they're already more relaxed about that. How do things sound so far to you experts?
 
I am no particular help on your question... but I love when my girls go in heat, they'll grab at each other's bums and have good long sniffs.. it's funny. :lol:

It sounds like your intros are going pretty well, I just don't know if Rose's stalking is worrying or not. So I'll let someone else get to that.
 
It sounds like it's going pretty good. What to watch for is like you mentioned if any of the rats are stressed, tense or scared. If not, then there are no bad signals being sent to the newbies.
 
It sounds like Rose is just making sure those wily babies understand who's boss. Sounds like it's going very well!
 
Thanks for your suggestions so far! I wonder, would anyone mind if I posted a video of them all interacting, so I can get opinions? I think they're doing pretty good, since there aren't any outward signs of real meant aggression, but I'd rather have people's opinions on the matter. Anything I can learn, I'm willing to! :3

I also wanted to ask two questions while I'm on the subject here. One is, how much attention should I really pay to small squeaks? I hear Guild make them all the time, pretty often when him and Rose are associating. There aren't ever instances when Rose seems to be bothering Guild though, just contact, etc. The boys do a lot of small squeaks too. Do they mean a lot?

I've also noticed a couple of times when Rose and Guild/Rose and Loki have stood on their hind legs and froze like that, with their arms poised. Nothing ever results from it, but I figure that's a sign of challenging, no? They've always just glared at each other and then went about their business.
 
Can non-experts throw something in? :p
I think that as far as Rose goes you can't really judge fairly how he feels about the kids if he is having a health issue, it might be a reason for him to act more aggressive than he normally would if he's feeling compromised and needs to assert his power. Like a little guy showing off his muscles around a big guy.
Maybe he's really fine with them and when he feels better he will mush them up! :grouphug:
I think everything you've described is really alright, sounds like things are going good.
It would be good to post a video, I did that when I intro'd some girls and got a lot of good feedback.
 
Fidget has a good point.

But, I would sure love to see the videos!!

Also, standing up, sometimes called boxing is normal behaviour, small protesting squeaks, quite normal as well.

I still want t see those videos!
 
*lol!* Yeah, nevermind the advice, everyone just wants to see cute rats!

I took these videos last evening, just after I was done writing on here. It took all day to upload them -_____-. But here they are! Rose didn't make any of the noises last night (or so far today either), so I wasn't lucky enough to record that. But they're good videos of how they interact so far. After the baby cereal was gone, Rose did follow the boys and pestered them a little more, but it was just the same as he's been doing, he hasn't really been too rough with them.

Anyway! There are three videos, but the last one only just finished uploading, so I don't think it's processed yet. I'll add that when it's done.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8nL7xOOxF7Y Part 1.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a27BVJhP_Lo Part 2.

Please ignore my stupid voice :p. Plus, the lighting isn't very good, because the lighting in my room isn't the best. Oh, and in the second video, Rose crawled from my back onto the floor, so I went to retrieve him. :p
 
I would say so, looking at the older guys, they are just having fun. The younger guys are a little cautious but not from the big guys, just from their surroundings.
 
I agree. Loki and Freyr have improved leaps-and-bounds since they first came home with me, but they are still certainly cautious about things. For the most part, I think they just go about their own business, and humor Rose when he still checks them out, unless he's being rough with them.

Infact, right now they're all out on my bed, and Rose is leaping away, writhing around and trying to get them to play with him. He LOVES to wrestle, and Freyr was following him all around and even jumped on his back a couple of times! Rose loves to wrestle with people though, so I think sometimes he can be too rough with Guild and now the boys, since he's used to being a little rougher with me and my friends.

But I'm glad that you think things are going well so far. :3 It's a big relief on my part.
 
It's so nice to see the boys again! They are all getting along very well. having the dish of cereal is a great idea for motivating them to come out to the centre and be photographed!
 
Thanks to you, they get a dish of baby cereal every single night! They get upset with me if they don't have it! *lol*

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jtzkq76BNp0 Part 3 is finally up! I swear, I had such a time keeping Rose on the bed after the first time. :p He kept crawling onto my back and down from there. But this video shows good how he acts with the boys... following them around sometimes and chasing them, etc. And you got a small small view of Rose hand-wrestling!

Anyway, time to give the babies a kiss, then stalk off to work... :sleepy2:
 

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