and now it begins ... the initial step to only 2 cages

[Chelipepper]

well ..the girls are doing well ..all 5 of them are in a All Living Things condo and are happy as clams ..

the boys on the other hand ..i have 5 boys-4 cages and the 2 younger rats who ARE together still scrap sometimes :doh: Going to take it slow ..they are all relatively near each other now and can smell and see each other .. next will be one in a small carrier placed into the play pen tote while another is outside and free to walk around the carrier and sniff without getting too close ..then swap places, rinse repeat ..i think its going to be a looooong process since they are all fine when they are close enough to smell each other and even touch each other thru cage bars, but put them in a neutral place together and oy anic:

 

[jorats]

By doing that, you may be creating aggression between the two. When there's a barrier, it makes it that much more stressful on a rat. Just like a dog... if other dogs approached my dog while he was in a the pen, he went nuts but when he was out of the pen, he was ok.

Your best bet is to find a "scary" place where they can meet. So that when they meet, both will be more concerned with the "scary" place and not each other. Like a table top in the basement, or on the washing machine (while not in use) or the bathtub. You want a smallish area, new to both rats, no toys, no hidey holes but do add something yummy to eat.

 

[Chelipepper]

thanks for the suggestion, Jo :thumbup: im glad i found that out before hand lol .. Sigh i think we will try a bit more cage next to each other time before i get brave enough to go for neutral territory again .. poor Bozzuto lost a toenail and got a deep bite in his back the last time i did (and was mad at me for a week oy ) its just so darned hard with these guys cause they literally show no signs of aggression at all towards each other -even when their cages are almost touching - until they are close enough to launch themselves at each other in an open space, then its on. (well except for jefe, who seems to get aggitated by everything these days ..which is why hes getting snip-snipped)

 

[jorats]

Can you refresh my memory, who are you trying to intro together and their ages? Anyone else neutered?

 

[Maple]

Congratulations on your girls. Look at the bright side, you are 50% there.

 

[Chelipepper]

Can you refresh my memory, who are you trying to intro together and their ages? Anyone else neutered?

Right now i have pongo and emmanuel together -pongo is 6 months old and eman is 4 months old .. the remainders are Jefe who is 9 months old, Bozzuto who is 5 months old and Bert who is over a year old .. no one is neutered .. Pongo was in with Jefe before Jefe turned into Mike Tyson :? .. eman and bozzuto are fine together but bozzuto bullies Pongo .. and bert thinks hes too old to deal with any of the nonsense lol

Congratulations on your girls. Look at the bright side, you are 50% there.

lol thats true, but using that kind of reckoning, im also into a full blown mid life crisis now :lol:

 

[jorats]

Ok so basically everyone's not so bad together except for Jefe and he's getting neutered right?
It's a tough one because they are males and all at the age of maturity. But it can be done. I'd probably wait for Jefe to be neutered before attempting to intro him but you can try the other three together.