So, as my last post stated, I got a new girl to add to the group. Being well-aware that Maarit isn’t going to last forever, I chose a girl that was the same age as Koko and Ruma. I knew that at a certain point in the near future, I was going to have to introduce her to Koko and Ruma. And as I was home for two weeks after my second surgery (left hand), I decided now was as good a time as any. I put them together as soon as I got home with Lumi. At this point, Lumi and Maarit had been together for over 48 hrs without any troubles.
The first hour was very boring. They sniffed each other, they ran around in the Duna trying to find a way out (mostly Koko and Ruma of course, not being used to being in a Duna very often) and they pooped. They also knew where to find the food and water, so so far, so good. After a while, little shenanigans started happening; Lumi and Ruma rolling around, but mostly Koko and Lumi going at eachother. Koko is the alpha, EVERYTHING belongs to her, so naturally, she’s not going to be happy about sharing. She’s a little (wel, big fat) bitch. Lumi figured she had to at least test if Koko really was the alpha, and if she was any good at it. Well.. six nights with little sleep later, the calm started to come and they moved from the Duna to a quarter RS and added a hammock. So far so good. Strangely, since they have been in there, Koko started picking on Maarit again (again? sigh…), but it hasn’t been disastrous. I added some elements to prevent her from getting angry (a second dish of food, a second toilet) and over the past days I started adding sleeping places until yesterday, I moved them to the bottom half of the RS, which I redecorated and it’s almost as a normal decoration. They are still adjusting and the intro isn’t over, but it’s looking ok.
So what do rats do during an introduction you ask? Well, take a look for yourself…
Thanks for laughing! 🙂 More pictures are acomin’!