Wtfreak?!?! - trying Intros (added pics)

[dspch911]

:heart: :cuddle: Hope the babies surgery went well :heart: :cuddle: Sorry to post here I know there is a post about it, but I worked from midnight to 4pm and I'm just too tired to look for it - ok, I'll stop whining now!!!!

 

[Ace8670]

:heart: :cuddle: Hope the babies surgery went well :heart: :cuddle: Sorry to post here I know there is a post about it, but I worked from midnight to 4pm and I'm just too tired to look for it - ok, I'll stop whining now!!!!

It went well actually I was able to bring them home and brought lots of yummy treats with me this morning and my vet said they started eating when they first woke up Bobo wasn't as active he looked really worn down but Dixie was running around in her cage

 

[hopefloats]

my boys always act like the world ended after a neuter and the girls are jumping around. And spays are more invasive but boys are more wimps.

 

[Ace8670]

Lol yeah Bobo always has been a big baby hey how long does it take for her to heal from a spay again? Six weeks right? And for a neuter 2?

 

[hopefloats]

That is the human time to recoup from babies I think after 4 or 5 days they are basically healed from the spays. They show nothing for both after 2 or 3 days. Most of my rats dont even react after the next day ends from theirs. Boys can get some sort of abscess so it take them longer but the sperm is dead after 2, but I go 4 to make sure. I have one at 3 and just about had a heart attack when he humped my intact girl.

 

[Ace8670]

So I can start intros in a week with them?

 

[hopefloats]

you can try. I had my girls done on monday and I had her doing intros today. Since she is spayed you dont have to wait till the sperm is dead with her.

 

[Ace8670]

you can try. I had my girls done on monday and I had her doing intros today. Since she is spayed you dont have to wait till the sperm is dead with her.

Okay Kool thanks :thumbup: I will probably atleast wait for 5 days that's when their pain meds run out and let them adjust

 

[EDK]

Aside from being tired alot, any other behavior changes with him? Is he being nicer? :giggle:

 

[dspch911]

Glad to hear! Bobo is just mourning the loss of his "rathood" :laugh4:

 

[Ace8670]

Aside from being tired alot, any other behavior changes with him? Is he being nicer? :giggle:

Well he has been to mopey lately and worn out looking to tell he does eat and chew slowly like he is still high off the shot too but he isn't jumping around yet or anything. He isn't biting me or anything anymore he seems very slow and tired

 

[jorats]

Sending lots of healing vibes for Bobo.

 

[Ace8670]

Okay as for an update Bobo and Dixie are healing well and Bobo was super happy to see me when I got home so I guess he is feeling a lot more like his old self he even popcorned in his cage when I came in the room :dance: I only let them out of their cage for a half an hour I wasn't sure how much running around would be okay with it only being the third night after their surgery tomorrow I will let them out for longer since they seem to be healing so well. I do have a couple of questions tho... I'm planning on starting intros on April 1st figured it was a enough time for them to adjust and a good date for me to mark and keep track of their progress but I have Dixie alone and Bobo alone and then Marco and Ziggy together should I start my intros with all 4 or should I just trying to add one of them to the Brothers and do it one at a time? Also since me getting my DCN has been postponed for a month or two at the very latest I wanna know if the one rat cage I plan on all of them living in temporarily until I get the DCN will be big enough I put it in the rat calculator and it said it was fine for 4 rats if space was used wisely , it's Dimensions: 28.5”L x 17.5”W x 31.5”H in inches

 

[jorats]

That cage is very small for 4 rats and it might do more harm than good by putting in 4 rats who have just started to know each other. It might be worth it to keep doing intros until you do get the big mansion for them.

 

[EDK]

This is what I did on my intros, following Jorats advice:

I introduced my girls in a neutral zone, aka the bath tub, with ONE of my boys at a time, starting with the most accepting of my boys, the alpha Gizmo. I did that with each one of my boys, one at a time for about 2 weeks. I did this with one boy at a time because Gyro had a history being aggressive to new rats, so I didn't want to take chances, despite he and the other boys are neutered, Nes had a bit of a rep too so I took it slow. At one point during the bathtub intros with Gyro, he got pretty puffy and hissed, whenever the girls got close. Soon as he did this I'd push the girls away or i'd move him away from the girls and stroke him, letting him know I was there to protect him like Jorats said.

After he calmed, 2 weeks later then I introed all the boys together with the girls for another week. After that went well, we stepped it up a bit more with the girls being in the playing zone of the boys. This was tedious because Nes and Gyro were very territorial for awhile. But then as if a flashlight turned on, the boys were all relaxed with the girls in their territory. So I put the girls in the main cage with the boys one night, and they were all getting along so well! I didn't plan on leaving the girls in there with the boys for the entire night, but you know what? It worked! They were all sleeping together! The slow and tedious with the intros paid off.

This was my intro story, its worked with me but i'm extra cautious because my boys had an aggressive rep with other rats. I'd say it neever hurts to be overly cautious.

 

[Ace8670]

Okay thanks I thought it was alil small for 4 as well that's why I wanted to check I do have a huge ferret cage with 4 levels I know would be big enough but I for one hate the cage and I'm too nervous of them escaping been going over the money and the bills lately and hopefully I can squeeze getting the DCN next month but thank you guys for the help and EDK I will follow your advice and try to introduce them one at a time

 

[Ace8670]

So I decided to do intros today... with Dixie first with the two brothers it went well but alil to well all they want to do was sniff her lady parts and her kicking their faces with her back feet trying to get them away then she would run away them fast on her heels it sorta looked like follow the leader until she stopped and their noses was between her legs she was getting very irritated but when they would take a break to .... Hump each other in excitement she actually popcorned alittle bit so you could tell she likes the company of other rats. The boys flipped her a few times when she lost her balance from back kicking them but not to groom her to show dominance but to get a better sniff of her lady part :wallbang: is that normal??? They even kept attempting to mate with her :emb: Next I did Dixie and Bobo it went well but Bobo did the same thing except minus the trying to hump as well part, he was more a gentleman when she said no he'd back of alil atleast but he was more rough with his sniffing and she would squeak real loud and try to jump on me or out of his range like it hurt her but when Bobo would leave her alone shed popcorn but I think Bobo intimidated her alittle. Next I did the Brothers and Bobo it went great with much of Marco Trying to dominate Bobo with humping Bobo being more like his old self took it and just rambled around and ate peas after 30 min of that Marco tried to flip Bobo and Bobo bite Marcos foot not bad and I didn't realize til after I pulled Bobo out Marco bite him where his man parts use to be and drew blood as well not deep or anything serious but Wow I bet that hurt so I understood why Bobo bite him so hard so I'm gonna wait another 5 days before I try to boys again I don't want Marco to reopen Bobos cut even tho it looks healed to my eye for the most part :/ sorry no video I'm completely out of memory I have to go through and figure out how many rattie pictures I feel like I can part with or download to something else

 

[jorats]

I would be very concerned with Marco biting Bobo's genetics. This is very serious. It's usually considered a direct aggressive attack. Marco might need a neuter. Be very careful and keep a close eye on Marco.
But their behaviours with Dixie is very normal.

 

[Ace8670]

OKAY!! I been switching cages every three hours and I did a 4 hour neutral intro I learned Dixie must be some kind of peace maker I put all 4 of them together and they did 10 times better then when it was just Boys there was no fighting at all so after that I did play area intro good news there was only two squabbles if you can even call it that it had alittle bit of stance but no flipping at all. Then today I did it again I pulled them all out so I could clean all their cages while I was in the process of cleaning I stuck Bobos sleep house on one of the others cage turned around and saw this!

:dance: apparently all three males decided to climb up on the cage and squeeze into the house and go to sleep so I figured to go ahead and scrub down the ferret cage I had really well and see how they went under close watch and not even an hour later they were cuddling

I was worried about Dixie not cuddling with them but she joined later

Ordered the double critter nation cage will arrive sometime next week so I SOOOO hope the intro works out this time but maaan Dixie does make them more calm towards each other and she is definitely the center of their attention they are constantly trying to groom her and let's Her push them out of the food bowl so she can go hoard it :giggle:

 

[jorats]

Dixie and Bobo's neuter is probably why it's working out so well. This is why I love mixed colonies. The females always seem to make it all better.