Clark & Buckeye officially cagemates

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dspch911

dspch911

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2012
Messages
7,963
Location
Chicago, IL
I had originally started introducing Clark to Axe, Throttle, Peanut, and Grumpy, but Grumpy pasted, Axe is sick, and then the Throttle/Peanut drama began... Anyway, Wednesday 9/3 we let him out with the Buckeye babies who I believe (off the top of my head) are now 12 weeks old. He has meet them once before, but I thought he looked too big next to them.

Anyway, Clark's behavior changed then he got with the babies. This surprises me since he is really a people rat and hasn't had a rat buddy in over a year. My hyper little rat man has paternal instincts.... especially when his beloved putty cat came around.







This is Clark after the Putty came around (she is laying on the floor). Normally he would do everything in his power to try and get to her, but this time he made sure all the babies were in the fleece and he stood guard. I think he likes his mini Clark's
 
Things didn't go so well yesterday. Clark and Hawk had a bit of a disagreement - no injuries on either, but Clark earned himself the time our cage. The babies now bolt when they see Clark.... Oh Clark!
 
We have restarted intros with the boys since they sort of got put on the back burner with the vacation and other life events got in the way. I have been following Velo's thread and decided to try the treat method when ever Clark started to get ruff with the boys. Well...... if took about 15 minutes or less for him to catch on to that one. That boy is just too darn smart.... He started going up to them throwing his back leg over one of them and pulling them underneath him - then let go and come over to one of us for a treat... This was purpose behavior just for a treat - so that had to stop. He never really "attacked" his hair stood on end and he did a lot of the back leg "sweep" and side kicks. He did some side walking and rear end pushing, but never really got upset with any rat except Hawk who seems to want to hump them all - think he's going to need a neuter as he seem to be becoming a trouble maker. I just don't think Clark knows how to interact with them - he's a people rat - or not a rat at all if you ask Clark. I really think he wants friends but just doesn't know what to do with them.... I will try to get a video - that back leg sweep thing is kind of funny - does it mean anything?
 
Haha, we've got a similar situation. Rocky is the sweetest to humans too.
Keep on trucking, everyday, keep strong! I know mine have only gotten better!

I'd try to get the leg thing on video, it's hard to imagine...
Best of luck to you. ^_^
 
Was this on day one of new intros with Clark? Also, don't stop the treat thing...what you need to do is change criteria. So now when he goes to them and touches them and comes to you, no treat. But if he goes to them and turns away before touching them, instant treat. This is part of shaping and it's a really good start!
I hope to see the video...but so far, he sounds like a pretty good guy/bossman.
 
Yes, it was the first day of reintros. We didn't stop the treats just didn't give them when he purposely went up to them, did his thing, and came to us. They were all comfortable enough to lay down about an hour into it, but just not together. Clark did military crawl toward them though - why get up if you don't have to. They only wrestled once inside a hideaway - so we took it away, but that was about 20 minutes in. All together we had them out on the bed for about 90 minutes.
 
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Oh
My
God
That is seriously like the cutest thing ever. A Clark and a gaggle of little Clarks! So cute!

Love that kick too its frigging hilarious! They look like they're having fun together!
 
Oh wow, how can you tell them apart. lol Soooooo cute!!!!
Tell hubby not to pet Clark on his butt during intros, tell him to pet his head instead.
The kick is really good. It's usually a move I see girls do. It's a very benign move...Clark is an awesome boy. He had so many opportunities and good reason to beat the younguns but he chose to teach them instead using the back kick to remove them off of him.
 
Its not easy telling these guys apart, but Clark is bigger and the babies have different markings on their backs. Yesterday my son was helping, but I will definitely mention the butt thing... Clark is definitely my karate boy and Hawk pinned him once. That was day two .... hopefully this will work Clark needs cuddle buddies....
 
On the way to the vet with Hawk (see Hawk's thread) and I put Clark in the travel cage with the boys. Going good had some grooming going on and now they are all laying down. Scary surrounding = some bonding
 
We have them out again and things are going good go fights or even kicks from Clark. How long should we continue this or do you guys think after a cage clean we can put them together? The five will be going into a dcn
 
Is the bed neutral or familiar ground?
If it's neutral you should probably really try out familiar ground before moving in.
 
We stopped again for a few days - I have this horrible URI and my coughing scares them, but its apparent I'm never getting over it so we started again the other day and it was alright. Clark didn't attack anyone, but he was annoyed by them. I have video, but my home computer is still giving me a hard time so I cannot download them. Hopefully though I can scrub down the DCN this weekend (without dying) and put them together.
 

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