Jazelyn Starting Member 1 Posts
Hi everyone. Long time lurker, but now I need some help! My first 2 gliders are two females, 1 and 3 years old. One is adventurous (Tina) and the other just kinda accepts me because I have food. (Tammy). There two have been together for 9 months. I just took in a pair of neutered males. 6 mos old, brothers. (Groot and Rocket.) These two are very sweet, but their previous owner lost their home in a hurricane this summer so he rehomed them for obvious reasons. Groot is adjusting well. Rocket is who I'm worried about. I have had the boys a little over a month. They have all been vetted, quarantine is over, and basic bathtub intros have happened. The first few intros went well enough. Groot made fast friends with both of my girls. Tammy and Rocket get along fine. Tina however, seems to torment rocket. I think it's a dominance thing. She just chases him and pounces on him. They don't ball up, and don't get super mean, but Rocket seems increasingly stressed over the last week or so. They are currently in separate cages a few inches from each other. Groot likes to hang out with the girls on occasion, but I keep him with his brother to try and help keep him settled. The last few mornings Rocket is still awake just sitting on his wheel. He gets really upset if I try and put him in a pouch, and just seems stressed. He eats and drinks, but just doesn't seem to want to sleep. I don't know if I should move the boys into another room, just let Tina and Rocket work out their issues (I've been pulling all nighters next to the cages to monitor), or if I need to just give it more time with pouch swapping, etc. I'm just worried about the little guy. :( Any advice is welcome!
BYK_Chainsaw Fuzzy Wuzzy USA 1301 Posts quote: Originally posted by sjusovare
At the same time, the always advised -oh so codified- swaping pouches method NEVER worked for me, it just triggered stress and aggressivity in both cages from having inside their territory a foreign smell from an animal they couldnt interract with (possible hidden threat?), the only intros which worked for me are those accidental ones that I haven't tried to do 1st hand, during playtime... If it is just a dominance issue, that it doesnt escalate into open fights, and that he keeps eating well, I'd let them solve it (with careful monitoring) by themselves, if however after a while he keeps on not sleeping with the others or that the situation doesnt improve, I'd keep 2 separate cages and try again introductions later.
My wife did most of the introductions, i just helped out doing what she asked of me. but we mostly followed the procedure we found on several website, my example is a shortened version. but it contained the sleeping pouch swapping. As a side note, usually we had clean sleeping pouches swapped after 2 days, so the scent was not overwhelming. Right now their pouch is real stinky after 2 weeks and would probably freak out a foreign glider. The bathtub meeting time seemed real critical to me, they will do some spatting and have some freakouts, that is were my wife was best, it really stressed me out thinking one glider would get hurt. you just have to give them some time to really sniff around each other and get comfortable. my wife has done, 2 + 2 intro. 4 + 2 intro, then 6 + 2. she did a 2 plus 1. and finally a 7 plus 3... that last one was done fast and one glider of the 3 was not excepted and was chased almost every night but not hurt. after about 5 days we had to take her out. I would agree with you that steps can be adjusted or changed, but I believe the main thing it to get each glider familiar with the foreign scent. So when they meet glider to glider they aren't freaked out and go into defensive attack mode and fight. It seems the OP just put them together without any kind of scent training.
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