LA
Well-Known Member
I've been introing my trio (Melody, Fern and Erin) to Hazel and Lily who have lost 4 cagemates since May. My cage of two is very lonely, Hazel I know is dying for more cagemates.
So I started trying them out and things went really well. The first time was fine, second time we had a fight, which at the time I allowed access to Lily and Hazel's cage. Lily and Fern got into a scrap, Fern was pinning Lily with her head down. Fern ended up with a wound which we assume Lily did, but we don't think it happened on purpose. We allowed Fern to heal and tried again with no access to the cage and things went really well. Tonight I tried again with access to the cage and fights started again. This time Fern kept her head up and no wounds happened (thankfully) as this was our first wound during intros.
So it seems part of the problem is access to the cage, which I will be stopping that for now. Basically this is how it plays out. Fern sniffs, climbs, grooms Lily, Lily gets defensive, Fern doesn't like the defensive and poofs up and stands on her toes, and then Lily gets worse and then pinning and a ball of fur ensues. Hazel on the other hand just sits there as Fern checks her out and then Fern goes along her merry way. But Lily get really upset by Fern. I know Lily is a more sensitive rat, she's IMO still upset about her lost cagemates, she doesn't like change.
This is my first more difficult intro so I'm kinda just looking for help.
I am going to try with no access for the cage for a while and see if I can at least get Lily used to the idea. Normally I wouldn't have gone so far so fast but things went REALLY well the first night I was surprised I had issues the second night.
So I started trying them out and things went really well. The first time was fine, second time we had a fight, which at the time I allowed access to Lily and Hazel's cage. Lily and Fern got into a scrap, Fern was pinning Lily with her head down. Fern ended up with a wound which we assume Lily did, but we don't think it happened on purpose. We allowed Fern to heal and tried again with no access to the cage and things went really well. Tonight I tried again with access to the cage and fights started again. This time Fern kept her head up and no wounds happened (thankfully) as this was our first wound during intros.
So it seems part of the problem is access to the cage, which I will be stopping that for now. Basically this is how it plays out. Fern sniffs, climbs, grooms Lily, Lily gets defensive, Fern doesn't like the defensive and poofs up and stands on her toes, and then Lily gets worse and then pinning and a ball of fur ensues. Hazel on the other hand just sits there as Fern checks her out and then Fern goes along her merry way. But Lily get really upset by Fern. I know Lily is a more sensitive rat, she's IMO still upset about her lost cagemates, she doesn't like change.
This is my first more difficult intro so I'm kinda just looking for help.
I am going to try with no access for the cage for a while and see if I can at least get Lily used to the idea. Normally I wouldn't have gone so far so fast but things went REALLY well the first night I was surprised I had issues the second night.
