Intros

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Thanks so much. I hadn't even thought of rolling her over. Luckily, I will be bringing them both to my mothers house for intros, as she has an easier access tub & we'll have two people to help break apart any scuffles.

Thanks so much! I feel better planning in advance for this! I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks. :thumbup:
 
Just wanted to update. I found Bosco (newbies) bday on my rescue paperwork & he is now officially 8 weeks old... so...

I took him to my mothers for a bathtub intro with Minx. We each held a rattie for a few minutes, then switched ratties so they could smell the other on us. Lined the tub with a sheet & put a plate of soy yogurt in there. I dabbed the head & butt of each rat with some yogurt & we placed them in the tub. Minx ignored him at first, she bit him twice throughout the duration, but mainly seemed to want him to stay away. they did do some sniffs though, he's more interested in her than the other way around. gonna try round two now...
 
During the second attempt, she mainly ignores him, but when he gets close it gets a bit tense & occassionally she will bite him if he doesn't back off. She usually just tries to walk away from him as he's pretty interested in her, but if he doesn't back off she will sometimes push him away, and other times reach over and bite him. Not quite as much lunging as before, and sometimes she bites & yanks him a bit. She almost had him fully on his back, but backed off. So far, he doesnt seem overly phased by it, as he keeps going back to sniff her some more.
 
:dance: :dance: :dance:

Well, it's been a tense couple of weeks, but I think we're finally making progress! After a really good bathtub session this morning, Bosco discovered that he can squeeze through the bars of the FN & get to the upper level. I was unpacking & straightening my room when I heard the squeaks begin, & low & behold there is Bosco, half in & half dangling out of the upper level with Minx latched on (don't know if she was attacking or trying to get him in).

So... I thought it best to put them both on the bed to see how they interacted after the ordeal (aggression or friendly)... & this is what occurred:

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...not a fight, not a scuffle, not a single squeal of protest!!! Minx has flipped on her back for him numerous times while he pounced on top of her, & didn't looked phased at all! & mostly they are just snuggling together on the bed with Minx laying on top of Bosco.

Thanks so much Jorats!!! This thread has been extremely helpful throughout all this!
 
I adopted two three month old hairless rats, Julienne and Maurice, and I planned to introduce them both to Rizzo, my 10 month old man rat. Anyway, they all have outgoing personalities - Maurice is a little calmer than the other two, but he's not anti-social at all. I set them all in the tub with a bowl of baby cereal. There were no scraps, no hisses. Rizzo started bruxxing though, and there was a moment that they all tensed up for at least ten seconds. Other than that, they noticed each other, but it looked like they weren't phased with each other. They smelled each other and Julienne started grooming Rizzo a few times by the ear.

Then after about twenty minutes I moved them to my bed and they seemed great. Julienne was following Rizzo everywhere, Rizzo even seemed to be a lot more hyper than usual, but I'm not sure if that's anxiety.

I'm wondering if this is normal behavior. I've never introduced before, but I've read at least every introduction post here. This has got me stumped, I was expecting them to flip each other over and a little hissing, but nope, none of that happened. Is this normal?
 
Everything went great, but I had the three of them out on my bed and I noticed that Julienne was grooming Rizzo's face. Is this something I should be worried about? I mean, other than that, they get a long great. He groomed Rizzo at least two times during the hour that they were out. And on the second time, Julienne went under Rizzo's chin and started grooming him.
 
Been slowly getting my 2 new adoptees intro'd to my current older girl (around 20 months old) who lost her buddy last month.
They seem to be ok in a neutral place like on the bed, and almost ignore each other. But when they're placed on top of the cage, the older girl gets a bit nervous, and is constantly acting like a dog and checking out underneath the bums of the 2 new girls. So, ok, now she knows they're girls, but she won't stop doing it. Strange, or common?
 
Hey everyone!...
So i'm having some problems with Bowie's intro... he's a two month old kid, being introduced to another two month old and two ten month old boys. All intact males. The two big males acepted little Jim right away, but one of them just isn't acepting Bowie. Poor baby already has a teeth marking on his chin...

This is how i've been making the intros so far...
Bowie arrived two weeks ago. He's on a spare cage right next to the main one. Everyday i've been letting them play together in a neutral place (my bed) and explore each others cages. Everything goes well in the neutral place and inside Bowie's cage, but everytime i let him on the big boys cage, Syd gets too violent.
The breeder had Bowie together with his sisters, so i thought maybe the female odor was still on him, and decided to bath them all today (the big boys needed a bath anyway). Next thing i tried neutral place and cage again. It went fine for a while, but then Syd and Bowie went on some sort of staring contest for minutes, that ended up with Syd attacking poor Bowie again :(

What can i do?...
 
It's the cage. The cage is a huge territorial site and should never be involved in any intact male intros. You gotta do your neutral intros for at least a week, then on familiar ground with no cage for another week and then finally try the cage but only if the cage has been completely scrubbed down.
 
Oh i see!... Thanks so much Jo! I had both cages scrubbed down, didn't thought it would take so much time to get to that phase since the into with Jim was so quick (after a couple of days it was impossible to take them appart, so i let him in). This boy will need much more time then...
 
Each time will be different and you will learn new things as you go along. This one is going to take longer and no skipping steps unfortunately.
 

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