Ratablog

Intro Update

Oliver's intros to the girls continue to go well. There was a minor bump in the road; fortunately, it didn't last.

Wednesday we switched to vanilla extract, rather than almond extract. I think that was a bad move on our part. Little Roo jumped on Oliver, Oliver didn't like it and he got very puffy--that is, his hair started standing on end, a sign of agitation, and a scuffle broke out. I seperated them with the dustpan I had on hand for just such an emergency, and I kept him away from the girls for a minute or two. He calmed down, but he wasn't real thrilled with Roo, nor Roo with Oliver. Whenever Oliver approached Roo, or she found herself near him, one of them would shriek--I think it was Roo. Upon reflection, I'm about 99 44/100 % sure Roo was trying to lick the vanilla extract from Oliver's back, and she may have gotten a bit rough with him.

One thing I noticed--Oliver seemed to really spend a lot of time sniffing Neiko. When she started raising her tail, I decided intro time was up, just in case she was in heat.

Due to hockey, there was no intro attempt Thursday night. Friday we went back to almond extract--just a small amount. Oliver and Roo seemed to forget all about the other night, although every now and then Oliver would sidle up to Neiko or Roo. It was just a dominance move, and it wasn't frequent. I don't recall him getting puffy at all, and they were out together for over 90 minutes.

Yesterday was the biggest test. We put them together with no additional scent and I was ready with welding gloves and a dustpan. There was a brief scuffle between Oliver and Roo, but nothing came of it. Oliver did spend some time chasing after Neiko and sniffing her private bits, but she didn't react quite the same way she did the other night. In fact, she sniffed him back, and they also groomed each other.

This morning we put them together again without any scent, and we also included two small tubes. This is a bit risky because in the event one rat really goes after another, there's a chance the attacked rat might be trapped by the aggressor. A tube at least has a back door; OTOH, it's still a slightly enclosed space.

I think Roo sees Oliver as a threat to the pecking order in the cage. She made a couple of dominance moves toward Oliver (sidling and mounting) but it didn't seem to bother Oliver. Also, it seems Oliver really likes Neiko, as you'll see below.

Oliver

Clockwise from the upper left-hand corner, they are Oliver, Zoe, Kanga, Neiko, and Roo.

This was supposed to be a picture of Oliver grooming Neiko. Instead, it's a picture of him telling Neiko she's finished.

Neiko grooms Oliver. Roo stands by to tell her if she missed a spot.

Neiko was actually quite submmissive to Oliver. Here, she laid down before him, and he cuddled up to her and started taking a nap. It seems he has a girlfriend.

We plan to continue the intros throughout the week, and on Saturday we're going to scrub the girls cage really well and put him in there.

Posted by Publius at October 16, 2005 02:52 PM