I'm interested in hearing more about you being able to have safe play time between cages that don't get along. I have 5 boys I want to get together, but intros went badly because one of the younger boys was screaming the whole time. I feel like the others could be okay together but idk how to navigate the situation

@@dizzylightyear2427 It's a difficult and maybe specific situation. I had two male rats, one of which had to be castrated because he turned aggressive towards his brother, whom he was with from birth, because of hormonal aggression. To be prepared in case one of the males died, I had opted for getting two female rescue rats. One was about 6 months old, one about a year old. My males were 22 months old. Anyway, introductions.. I tried the open space method, because these two shelter rats were 'neglected' and from a SPCA seizure. The girls were very difficult, afraid of being touched by the males (and by humans at first), and rather ran away and avoided the males. I gradually added a half-open playbox to the intro area, and later tried to add a cabin. But one of the girls still remained anxious about being touched or groomed and she would fight to get the males to stay away from her (luckily no bites or blood drawn). The intros slowly progressed, and after maybe 75 hours of gradually longer open space intros they were ready to move to an almost empty smaller intro cage. There they got gradually longer daily meetups, until I trusted them enough to have them spend the night together in the intro cage, next to my bed. (All the intros were constantly supervised). When they had 3 days and two nights safely together in the intro cage they were ready to move to one half of my two level cage (SRS95 double). Again first without any cage furniture except for two water bottles, two food bowls, and shredded paper towels for nesting material. Again I tried to gradually add cage furniture, like a big cabin, a wheel, and a hanging tube. The girls were still being difficult. One was a squealer and a submissive, the other was an anxiety fighter. Particularly when she felt cornered or while being groomed. After four happy days together the anxious female couldn't take the male attention anymore, and she lashed out at both males, about half an hour apart. So I kind of gave up on the two pairs ever being together happily. But then, after about 2.5 months one of the males died. I was heartbroken, and felt very sorry to now have a single male and a pair of females that couldn't be together, despite me having tried everything, every method, for over 100 hours combined. But I wasn't about to give up. The younger female wasn't an anxiety fighter, although she was still an anxious ratty that didn't like to be touched. So I started out with open space intros again with her and the lone male, later adding a big open playbox and a turned over open plastic tank (front side open) as a safe 'house' with a big opening, and in which I could still fully supervise the two rats while they were in there. Last week I moved the plastic tank to my intro cage, and after some ten minutes into each session (3 to over 5 hours) the female calmed down and even relaxed and snacked next to the male and even slept with her head on top of his back. (Mind you, all four rats would happily have a snack next to each other in every intro session). But what is then strange again.. When I put her in the male's cage half (after a long couch playtime session in the box or intro cage) she kind of turns into a bully. And my male is notably anxious and stressed. While it is HIS cage half, with his scent, his cage furniture, and so on. So after all this intro time together (some 100 hours and 3.5 days between the two males and the two females, and after by now 50 hours between the younger female and the remaining male) I still can't trust them being together in the same cage half. I don't understand why she behaves this way. Maybe because how she was (mis-)treated/neglected before I adopted the two girls from the shelter. So yeah, my oldest female can probably never be safely together with any male rat, inside or outside a cage, and my youngest female is only safe with my male outside of the main cage, on neutral terrain. But my male at least has some interaction with another rat, on a regular basis, and for several hours, and he gets cuddles and groom time with another rat, and is not alone for the remainder of his life. And he gets more attention and cuddles from me as well. It is pretty difficult for me to find another suitable friend for him, and you can't just go to a shelter and ask for two rats to try and introduce to your rat and then return them after a month. "Sorry, they are lovely rats, but they won't bond with my resident male. Can I try two others?". Also because the shelter is 1.5 hours away by car.

* small plastic hamster tank

ROFL, I had one rat who would take huge bites out of any belt, no matter how new... grrrr :D

@@jack-a-lopium Yes!! Curtains.

One of my girls did this the other day with a curtain😂 made the error of leaving the cage to close to it and then next thing the curtain had a peep hole in it

my boys have TORN my curtains up

Sorry to hear about Olly 😞

You definitely didnt Fail Olly! You did the very best you could do. ❤ I am so so sorry for your loss. :(

Try putting some fruit yoghurt or fromage frais or especially Ferret Paste on the back of your hand or your palm and let them lick it off! Helps with trusting you more. They all have different Personalities.. ..two of my boys don't like being held, but the other two will tolerate it..for about 2 minutes 😄

I have A video on it 😊

hello im a pet loving normal granny, i have 7 girl mice all different natures and so funny with me 24/7 in see through tank, i called them all MOHAMED then changed their name to good English name MOUSEY (i jest) .... my old gentle girl blue/cream will come to see me when talk to them

Good idea!

@@Emiology Thank you 😊

Mine don’t really they just tend to dig down one corner and kick the rest up the edges. If you try mixing in another bedding like hay or cardboard it might hold potential burrows better!

It's something I'm considering tbh! I've heard they can be easier to introduce to each other which makes sense as large size in males is often related to how much testosterone they have

It doesn’t really benefit them and the sun is often too bright for their eyes as a crepuscular animal. Even the porch or fake grass has the chance to carry pathogens from wild animals / rats touching it 😊

A rat cage

That can be incredibly risky, you’re lucky that it went okay and for some rats they’re fine with other rats straight away. But putting a rat into the others territory (was it cleaned first at least?) after a brief meeting on neutral territory can go really wrong if the rats don’t take too well to it

@@Emiology yes i made sure i cleaned the cage and had 3 separate areas for them to hide away from each other. My baby is very little and and took to my older babies very quickly. I do make sure I feed my little rat one on one but they have never hurt him. I got them all from the same breeder and there about 2 months apart so they could of possibly all ready been around each other a lot as my breeder does a lot of outside play with the rats to make sure their friendly for their new home

I’m so happy and excited for you! Have a happy time together with your new rattie girls. Thank you to your mom for saying “yes.” 😊❤🐀🐁❤😊

Mice are quite delicate I don’t think personally that it would be practical to keep them outdoors in a shed they would be much better indoors but I would recommend looking into it :)

@@0wywiwoeuru I’ll look into it soon thi will be in 2 years but I just thought it would be safer as I have a high drive ratter dog so might be more difficult but I have a hamster they are just not allowed in the same room

@@sunnynorris39 I would keep them in the same room as the hamster or just not get mice as they require a lot of space

Mouse breeders will often have insulated sheds they keep their mice in, but it would be hard to maintain for it to be safe, it would have to be kept consistently warm during the winter so they don’t go into Torpor and you’d also have to make sure it’s completely rodent proof to stop rodents like rats getting in and killing them or wild mice getting in and spreading diseases and possibly mating with them if they’re able to get into the enclosure. For just a few mice it would be a lot of effort to try and make it work instead of having them inside 😊

@@Emiology thank you so much for your reply

No rats will kill mice

A small group of female mice need at least 80x50cm of floor space and ideally around 50cm+ height to be able to fit in enough bedding and climbing toys for them. The top of the enclosure would also be an issue as they’d be more likely to be able to squeeze out compared to a hamster but they need plenty of ventilation so would need a mesh top lid 😊 I’d also have a think about how you’d feel about getting more mice once you’re start to pass away before you commit to getting mice, you’ll either need to keep getting more mice or rehome them if one passes as they can’t live alone and this might give you similar feelings that you felt like you’d be replacing your hamster.

@@Emiology okay thank you so much. I don’t think I would feel as sad as if I lost one of the mice as I would feel sad for the other and this hamster was my first rodent, so I will probably stick to hamsters! I shall see if I can fix or find another cage if I end up really wanting mice 😁 ( also the sliding glass has small slits in and there are ventilation holes in the wood, don’t worry it not suffocating them 😅😂)

@@Emiology I just measured with a tape measure and it actually comes to 88x 38 still a bit off is that still ok or not enough 🙂

Yes

Luck* sorry if there’s any misspelling i was doing something while typing.

Have you tried malt paste?

@@fionacrowe9216 no I haven’t but I’ll look into it. I’ve mostly been using baby food.

Up? 😊

@@Emiology I’m going to foster rats! I already bought the critter nation cage

Hi

Hi 🙂

She was doing that for good reason, she should have refused the sale though. Rats should never be purchased or live alone you need to go back and buy a second one