NotKate
Member
I may just need reassurance here, that I'm not totally messing this up...
I have two boys, Pickle and Radar, who are about six months old. In December I rescued Hercules from a series of unhappy homes. I think he's older than them, anywhere from 6-14 months according to the vet.
I've been trying for 2 1/2 weeks to get them to tolerate their cages being near each other. It started slow, ten minutes next door, then twenty, then an hour went by and nobody got upset. So I rearranged the room so the cages could sit a few feet apart. The boys started sparring more, so just to be safe I moved Hercules back across the room for a night to let them calm down, and brought him back in the morning. After a few days I started inching the cages closer together and swapping blankets. Pickle and Hercules were sleeping on each other's blankets and everyone seemed curious and excited but not aggressive. Two days ago I let both parties explore the others' cage, and deep cleaned the cages before putting them back home. Pickle and Hercules were chill, but Radar was NOT okay with this - heavy breathing, puffy fur and over-grooming one spot on his back.
So, I moved Hercules across the room again. The following evening I brought him back and it lasted less than ten minutes before Radar was huffing and Hercules was fighting his water bottle. So away they went. Today I brought him back while everyone was asleep, but as soon as Radar woke up he started huffing again.
It's taken a big step backward and they aren't tolerating what they were fine with before. Radar is not the dominant rat of the two but he is definitely most upset.
Is this just how it goes? I expected introducing three intact males to be hard, but wow. Am I messing this up? Do I need to think about neutering what is usually my mellowest guy? Or do I just need to carry on and really stretch out my expected timeline?
I have two boys, Pickle and Radar, who are about six months old. In December I rescued Hercules from a series of unhappy homes. I think he's older than them, anywhere from 6-14 months according to the vet.
I've been trying for 2 1/2 weeks to get them to tolerate their cages being near each other. It started slow, ten minutes next door, then twenty, then an hour went by and nobody got upset. So I rearranged the room so the cages could sit a few feet apart. The boys started sparring more, so just to be safe I moved Hercules back across the room for a night to let them calm down, and brought him back in the morning. After a few days I started inching the cages closer together and swapping blankets. Pickle and Hercules were sleeping on each other's blankets and everyone seemed curious and excited but not aggressive. Two days ago I let both parties explore the others' cage, and deep cleaned the cages before putting them back home. Pickle and Hercules were chill, but Radar was NOT okay with this - heavy breathing, puffy fur and over-grooming one spot on his back.
So, I moved Hercules across the room again. The following evening I brought him back and it lasted less than ten minutes before Radar was huffing and Hercules was fighting his water bottle. So away they went. Today I brought him back while everyone was asleep, but as soon as Radar woke up he started huffing again.
It's taken a big step backward and they aren't tolerating what they were fine with before. Radar is not the dominant rat of the two but he is definitely most upset.
Is this just how it goes? I expected introducing three intact males to be hard, but wow. Am I messing this up? Do I need to think about neutering what is usually my mellowest guy? Or do I just need to carry on and really stretch out my expected timeline?
