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Post by Nathan Pearson on Oct 28, 2007 20:15:17 GMT
We have 2 new 20week old girls called Smudge and Nugget reascued from Pets at home adoption service wil post pics soon,
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Post by louise on Oct 29, 2007 12:14:24 GMT
They are really cute, can't wait till we can share the pics with u later.
We weren't even going out with the intention of gettin rats. We were xmas shoppin in town and had forgot to set our watches back an hour. Thinkin we had to go meet our friends, we set off home and then realised that we were an hour in front. So we popped into pets at home on the way to have a nosy and waste sum time.
When we got to the adoption centre part, there were these two girl ratties and Neds eyes just misted over. At that moment I knew we were leaving with them.
We are hoping to introduce them to Daisy later on today and see how they get on. We will probably leave it a few days before we move them all in together though. Daisy can be a little antisocial and we wouldn't want to upset her.
I know Ned has talked to a couple of members on MSN about how to handle the introductions, but I thought it would be good to have an open discussion on here so we can all learn from it.
So... anyone have any advice on inroducing new ratties? Anyone got any warnings or questions? we will keep people updated on what we do and how the ratties react.
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Post by swiftvalley on Oct 29, 2007 15:45:00 GMT
Welcome to smudge and nugget... As for the intro`s i think that if you ask 5 people how they do it you m ay possibly get 5 different answers. I usually just clean out my cage, re arrange furniture and put them in, if theyre girls. I have never had any problems this way. I have also currently introduced 5 adult bucks all over 1 year old in a cage together. Cage scrubbed, boys had a dab of tea tree oil on their tail roots and put them in. You should expect a few minor squabbles, its nature as the pecking order has to be established, this end, things have settled down really quickly and i have not ever had a problem. altho..... everyone is different.
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Post by louise on Oct 29, 2007 17:05:13 GMT
ok... so... here's the story....
We made the bed the neutral place. Got Smudge and Nugget out first and put vanilla essence on them. Then we got Daisy out and put vanilla essence on her.
We put them all on the bed together. They weren't too bad at first - sniffing, the odd squeek. Then the fighting started, the flipping competition, you know the thing.
The last fight had calmed down, (with smudge and nugget quivering in one corner and daisy hiding between me n ned) when ned noticed blood. Somewhere throughout the whole thing, Nugget has had her ear ripped in two.
A quick vet trip told us that there was nothing to really worry about, and Jon, the vet, shared our optimism that the injury was not a bite. It seems like more of a slice so we are hoping that she simply caught it on the cardboard box they were fighting in...
We still think that we might be able to get them to be friends, but to be safe we are keeping them in seperate cages just for now.
Any thoughts?
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Post by louise on Nov 2, 2007 11:45:26 GMT
Update: we got them together on the bed again. There were a few scuffles, as can be expected, but no injuries, HURRAH! We think it is most likely now that the ear injury was an accident and that it is looking good for getting these girls together. We are thinking of trying them out in the same cage tomorrow (Saturday), obviously taking your advice Swiftvalley of scrubbing out the cage first. We are hoping to give them one more playing session on the bed tonight though, just to be on the safe side.
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Post by louise on Nov 3, 2007 22:21:52 GMT
We have just put the girls all together in the same cage. We completely scrubbed everything and put a bit of vanilla essence on everything too. So far everything has gone well. We did expect Daisy to come out as dominant, but it appears that Smudge is taking that role at the moment. However, it is early doors and they are still squabbling and fighting. I hope we have done the right thing for Daisy. We got the girls with the hopes of making her life better. I really hope it works out that way.
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Post by louise on Nov 4, 2007 21:33:40 GMT
Well, they are together.
I got practically no sleep last night as they squealed at each other, but no blood was drawn. Daisy and Smudge are still squabbling periodically but nugget seems settled.
We've just let them out for a bit of exercise and a rest away from each other for a while. I'm hoping to get more sleep tonight as the fighting has radically gone down.
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Post by hollythesponge on Nov 10, 2007 18:44:03 GMT
AWWWW's all i can say!!
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Post by louise on Nov 11, 2007 21:14:03 GMT
we had a breakthrough!!! It's been pretty much stalemate since last week. But last night, one week since moving in together, the girls actually slept in the same bed!! we are so proud of them! it looks like they will certainly be able to all live together comfortably now! hurrah!!
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Post by Nathan Pearson on Nov 12, 2007 10:53:02 GMT
Well we have had the girls two weeks now and it if finally time to show some pic since i managed to ge tthem to stay still for half a sec. They have been living with daisy for just over a week now and yesterday they have finally decided they like each other and are now playing and sleeping together poor Daisy is botttom of the chain again though. K pics This is Smudge And this is louises messy bedside plus nugget
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Post by hollythesponge on Nov 27, 2007 13:01:27 GMT
awww peekaboo!
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Post by Nathan Pearson on Dec 1, 2007 13:04:12 GMT
Time for another update. The girls are now best of best friends Nugget has show herself to be a very confident rat who will do anything for attention where as Smug is confident but prefers to be left to herself and allowed to climb on you when she feels ready
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