Older rat scaring babies

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rattietatties

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2019
Messages
23
Location
Schaumburg, Illinois
I got a pair of baby rats around two months ago and they are now around 3 months old. I've been trying intros for about two weeks now and while they're doing great with one of my boys the other one is not so good. He's not been necessarily aggressive but he's a larger rat and had freaked the babies a bit the first time they met. He doesn't immediately attack them when put in together but will sniff them a lot which leads to squeaks from the babies (I don't think they are getting hurt, no cuts on either but more so being scared of him). He's tussled with one of them a little bit but it's the same amount of fighting I saw when I introduced him to my oldest boy. The babies will huddle in the corner together when he gets too close and if he ends up next to them they will jump out of the pen and I can't get them to stay in after they've been freaked. Is there anything I can try to lessen their fearfulness of the older boy? Currently, they are meeting in a playpen a couple of meters away from both their cages (Each pair is in one half of the dcn) so could it be a territory issue with them needing to meet farther away from the cages?
 
He’s about 1.5 years, they are okay with him for a bit if I have my other boy who they’re more comfortable with in first but he comes onto them very fast which I think scares them
 
I had them in just with the 1.5y boy who was scaring them today and it went a lot better. I had him focused on food while the babies sniffed him and the braver one went up to sniff the food he was eating and no aggression (A little bit of cowering from my shyer boy but no frantically leaping out of the pen). I'm thinking he just came off to hard the first time they met and so they've been a bit spooked, but hopefully allowing them to approach him while he's distracted will work better. If anyone has any more tips or recommendations for how to proceed with intros that would be welcome!
 
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