Looking for Reassurance

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Rattiroo

New Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2018
Messages
1
Location
Oklahoma, USA
This is only me second introduction so of course I’m a bit of a nervous wreck, and I’m just looking for some reassurance I suppose.

I adopted a 5 (ish?) month old boy (Odin) from a local rescue as a companion to my 29 month old spayed girl, the last of my previous mischief. I was able to get Odin neutered basically right away (I like mixed cages so I always at least neuter the boys), and after healing up I went ahead and tried a quick neutral (bathtub) territory meet-and-greet. I fully admit I messed up here. My last introduction was uneventful until they were in the resident cage, so I figured they would basically ignore one another for the 5 or 10 minutes I had them together. So, yeah, that didn’t happen.

The Little Allfather puffed up immediately, arched up so much he was on his tippytoes (it would have been adorable if it wasn’t such an aggressive posture), sidled up to Spooks (who wasn’t really paying attention to him) and pounced into a rat-ball. Poor Spooks was shrieking her little head off, so I broke it up and checked her over, seeing that she was fine, put her back in and tried to encourage Odin toward the yummy baby food I had on a paper plate, but he was just absolutely fixated on Spooks, who at this point was just trying to get away from this crazy kid, squealing and chattering anxiously.

I decided to call it and took them out and put them back in their separate cages. I realize I should have started at the very beginning, with bedding and cage swapping, etc, so I’m going back to that now. Hopefully most of Odin’s reaction is hormonal and his neuter will catch up to him and he will chill out, because I can tell how lonely they both are.

Any advice, or similar situations where things turned out okay? I’d appreciate it.
 
I would probably wait a week or two to let things settle down and then start intros completely over again. Start by keeping their cages side by side until they’re comfortable, let them get used to each other’s scent, and continue with intros slowly, making sure they’re comfortable at each stage before moving on to the next.

I definitely think that it will work out eventually, especially since there were no wounds during his attack.
 
I would probably wait a week or two to let things settle down and then start intros completely over again. Start by keeping their cages side by side until they’re comfortable, let them get used to each other’s scent, and continue with intros slowly, making sure they’re comfortable at each stage before moving on to the next.

I definitely think that it will work out eventually, especially since there were no wounds during his attack.


That’s the plan! Thank you for the encouragement!
 
With teeth chattering like that, it's serious. I would definitely wait at the very least 2 weeks before attempting again. When was he neutered? Sometimes it can take up to a month before it calms down the male.
 
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