Alabama Ghost Horde Intros

[Storyseeker]

Since we're all getting used to these new kids, I'll start off with a roll call:

The home team in cage one The Ghost Boys:
Tucker
Black Pete
Melon and Skinner the Hairless Terror Twins

The new additions--The Ghost Girls:
Cage Two: Black Aggie 'Aggs' my Tilty Girl
Cage Three: Siamese Girl (still nameless)
Cage Four (I decided to keep their pre-adoption names):
Darcy (Blue Dumbo)
Devon (Blue Variegated Blaze--my grandma rat)
Zanna (Burmese--my great auntie rat)




I decided to try some preliminary intros today to see what I was dealing with. I did two 30- 40 minute sessions w/ my little spray water bottle and separation towel at the ready. First session was Darcy, Aggie, and Still Nameless Siamese. The second, later, was with Siamese and Black Pete.

Sesson one. I kept old ladies Devon and Zanna out of the mix for now. I'm going do this in stages and save them for later sessions.

What I'm seeing so far: Aggs is a little pistol instigator. She immediately began sidling and dominating both Darcy and Siamese.

Darcy was in heat ---those fluttering ears are hysterical. I've never seen that first hand-- and tended to tolerate Aggie with more minor protests and did her best to avoid confrontation.

Siamese clearly was un-rat socialized, and while she didn't seek out the other rats, stayed varying degrees of poofy and in a butt sidle position in 'her' corner most of the time.

We had a couple of noisy squabbles with Aggie and each of the girls. Then they began calming down a little at a time. Before it was over, I could tell that Darcy and Aggie could eventually do well together but if Siamese would do well at all, it was going to take a LOT of patience and work.

After giving them all break for most of the day, I took Siamese out again and put her with Black Pete, just to see how she would do with a male. He's much more sensible than the hairless, and of course has been neutered long enough to be safe in with the females. It was much more dramatic this time. Out of the gate, they both poofed up and had a big noisy brief rat ball then bolted to separate corners. Then it was as if Pete, who'd never seen a female in his life, had gotten a feel for what he was dealing with. He eased over to her where she sat poofy and stiff in her corner and then just sat there. I wasn't sure for a few seconds, but it became clear to me pretty quickly he was playing ratty diplomat wid da pretty gal. He wiggled his butt back and forth as if letting her know his size, and then touched his nose to her hip and sat still. She was poised to fight or flight, but he wasn't triggering her so she just stayed frozen.

Then he slowly lay down and buried his nose in her fur and closed his eyes. Eventually he started bruxing. It was like he'd found the meaning of life and she was it. After about 20 minutes like this I watched as the poof and tension slowly eased out of her body and she settled a little bit. Not completely relaxed, but not nerve wracked either . She kept turning her head to look at him, and then look back at me. I could see the gears spinning so hard in her head. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

They lay next to each other for at least 30 minutes. Pete eventually screwed it up by trying to climb on her back and she told him in no uncertain terms 'not without my permission'. However, I see potential for Siamese to eventually get along with some or all of the boys once she gets used to the idea of Other Rats at all.

Oh! Here's a cool thing. I've got a 'rat sonar' device so I can hear all the ultra sonic sounds rats make. I had it on to see what I could hear, and maybe so it could let me better gage ratty stand offs.

Most of the time, the sounds I hear come through a short bursts of static. Like morse code 'k-k-keh-k-k'. But whenever Aggs would try to dominate Darcy-in-heat, Darcy would do the tail lift ear flutter thing and I'd hear a distinctive short pop of static 'dit-doot-doot' followed by a slow drawn out and clear rat squeak sound, not static.--first louder and higher pitched, and then slowly dropping in pitch and intensity. Like a ratty version of a provocative come hither MEEEE-Yooow.

[Storyseeker]

Here's a few pics from our intro sessions.


Darcy:



Aggs showing Darcy that she's a Little Bit to be reckoned with:


Poofy girl in her corner. Her original owner let her get obese to the point that she couldn't move. She's on a diet, but still huge. Poofiness just makes her look that much bigger!

She really let her displeasure be known:



Shots of Siamese and Pete. I'm sorry about the photo quality, for some reason they came out super dark for the lighting conditions. I balanced the lighting to make it somewhat visible from the distance, but they're not great.


Pete approaches the Lady of Sensitive Disposition.


He settles by her side, as if to say he means no harm to fair Maiden.



Though it's not clear, this picture says everything. He is meditation and contentment personified. Half the time he even had his eyes closed. She is trying to figure out what to do, but perhaps thinking she doesn't need to scratch his face off. Say it with me now: Dawwwww.

[breyer08]

Wonderful update! Too hilarious about Pete and the Siamese girl! hahahaha! Hopefully she'll eventually warm up to other rats so she won't be all by herself. (She is a big girl! Based on my experience with putting a rat on a diet, it will take quite a while before she's back to a healthy weight.) Keep up the good work!!

[Vladina]

D'awww!!! I just melted seeing that photo of Siamese girl in the corner. Like a new kid at the playground who just does not want to be there. Poor baby!


And THEN.....along comes Mr. Suave, Black Pete, sidling up to Siamese Girl and seeming to whisper, "Ahh, do not bee shy, Pidgeon..." in grand Pepe Le Pew fashion. I am hoping for a romance between these two, complete with roses, chocolates and late night lab block nightcaps together, maybe?
Good job Black Pete, you charmer, you!


Darcy. Oh, what a beautiful name for our Russian Blue princess. Just a doll. A sucker for Russian Blues am I! I will keep my eye on this little lady.


And I am actually quite happy to hear that our lil Aggs is a pistol packin' gal with moxy and an attitude. I was feeling SO sorry for her since I heard about her, and your update made me think that she is probably saying, "Hey guys, don't feel sorry for me, I am TOUGH! Outta my way everyone!" So that cheered me right up!

Super update and I can't wait to hear more on your new kids! Gorgeous lil dolls, every one of em!

[Storyseeker]

I knew you guys would love Pete and Custard (She was named today after Custard the Cowardly Dragon).

And I'm with both of you. Aggie the Conqueror is a force to be reckoned with.

I'll continue sharing for you guys. More pics, and today's session.


Session two today. I was working all day so I didn't do all I wanted, but I took the Girl Trio and put them with Aggie.

My continued observations:

Sweet spotty Devon's the low ratty girl for sure. She really is a sweet quiet girl who seeks no confrontation and knows how to submit gracefully. Though poor baby kept pee drops on her head for most of the night. Devon is so precious. She's the oldest, and she reminds me of those tiny little soft old ladies who I used to wait on at Shoney's years ago. You know the sweet ones that hated to be a bother but you loved so much you'd jump through fire to bring them a creamer for their coffee? That's Devon. Miss Wheelie Tail. And bless her little fuzzy heart...my little sweet girl who never had an ill day in her life has popped up with a mammary tumor, noticed by my son the day we were going to bring her home. Her owner offered to keep her and let me take home another candidate I'd opted out of because I didn't want my husband to kill me for taking home SIX rats when I promised him four. I had already fallen for her and apparently I was the first person she'd ever warmed up to upon first meeting, so I had to take her. I'll be taking her in this week to get it removed while it's still small.

Darcy has a more spunk, and seems calmly confident, but will probably be pretty content to be number three under Aggie in the cage /once/ she sees how Zanna comes out. Then again, she may be waiting to hash it out with Aggie later on. Time will tell.

Zanna seems used to being the boss, but has lost strength and drive with age.

Aggie wants to be top rat, and even though she's smallest is not going to relax until she's either there, or someone has convinced her she's not going to get there. She also lacks Zanna's experience.

Zanna was the only one who got poofy today, but there weren't any 'rat balls' like there was yesterday with Custard. Ten seconds into intros and Aggie was flipped on her back. Twenty minutes later and Aggie had Zanna flipped. Then it was mostly bouts of relaxation interrupted by rats pursuing each other around the area with lots of hind feet to the face or back flipping. This was mostly Aggie and Zanna. So pretty much, once Aggie and Zanna work out who's gonna be alpha, I think getting this bunch integrated will be a formality.

The tension level was about a four as opposed to a nine yesterday with Custard.


I didn't do any sessions with Custard. Instead she spent the afternoon being read Elfquest by my oldest in his room.

So...pictures.

Zanna Banana, my old lady Queen, mugging for the camera:


Zanna enjoyed a reputation as an adventure rat after Jeffrey Indiana Jones. Here she is showing a little of that by trying to figure out how to run on top of the wheel.


Now it's cool girl Darcy mugging for me:


And because I've only now gotten Devon to come out of her shell and let me take pictures. Here's a photo dump of her and her curly bum. You can kind of see her tumor just behind her elbow when she presents her right side to the camera. But, much like baldness and poor manners, proper old ladies prefer such things not be mentioned in polite society.






Then I took out the cage and added Aggie to the mix:



I did get one shot of Aggie being flipped. She was actually flipped by Zanna, but when Zanna thought she'd made her point and wandered off, Darcy stuck around to take credit for the feat while Aggie lay belly up:

[Vladina]

Awww, great update and hooray, more pics!!

Custard, what a great name for our shy girl! D'awww. I know you named her after Custard the Dragon, but that name also does double duty as a description because she's such a sweet puddin'! Hee hee!


And sweet spotty Devon...aww, what a tender rose she is. I just want to scoop her up and give her so many rubs and kisses! Smooch her for me, yes? A delicate flower..so precious!


I thought it was great that Custard got a relaxing day off from intros after her harum scarum session yesterday and boy, how lucky for her...she got to have some one-on-one private Elfquest time with your son! Custard deserves some special quiet time today! My sweet girl! (And now Storyseeker starts to notice with unease that Vlad is referring to all of her ratty kids as OUR and MINE...and wonders when Vlad will be sneaking through her window to kidnap the ratties).

[breyer08]

I agree--Custard is a PERFECT name for her!! And Devon is absolutely gorgeous. (I've always been partial to blazed rats, of course, after my own dear Russie. ) It is really good to see them beginning to get used to each other, and it's also nice to see Aggie get schooled a bit! hahaha!

Looks like things are progressing quite well, and rather quickly, too! Please keep us updated--I love to see the photos and read all about their adventures!

[Storyseeker]

Quick update, mostly because I'm too tired to write much.

I'm on session three with the Wild Women together again (My three cage mates plus Saucy Aggs). They're all coming around and I think it's only a matter of time. Nobody got puffy today, so that's a good sign. I even felt comfortable enough with them together to use the time to clean out their cages.

I'm getting good at economical cage cleaning. I did the boys and Custard's cages yesterday. It's only taking me two hours to do two cages top to bottom. Daily spot cleaning becomes even more essential with multiple cages. And of course with everyone within proximity to each other, the cage marking is through the roof. Oy. I'll have to pin a blanket to my wall to protect the drywall from splatters.

Spotty Devon goes in for her tumor removal and spay tomorrow. I'm more nervous over her surgery because of her age and the nature of it than I've been over any of my boys' surgeries. But, she's in excellent health otherwise and her former 'mom' advised me that's what she would do (and has done many times). I'm following her preferences on these kids with her 15 years of extensive experience.

Tucker has shown some more hair loss this week. I poked Goosemoose to get their feel on it, and everyone is leaning towards either switching him from 2018 tekklad to 2014 for less protein, or that he's just getting old man baldness. Though it may very well be linked with the stress of the last week.

[Vladina]

Awww, good luck to sweet Devon with her surgery! I will be sending our best wishes for her. I am sure she will do great. She looks like a big strong girl.

Tucker is losing some fur eh? I never knew that the protein level of lab blocks could cause fur loss! Or perhaps it was just stress as you mentioned also. Keep us posted on Tucker?

My love to all your kids! Looking forward to more updates but yes, I bet you ARE tired!!

[breyer08]

Best of luck to Devon!! And I agree with the lower protein diet. Try that and see how he does. Stanley never lost fur, but Russ definitely did (probably starting around 26 months or so). He wasn't bald at all, but his fur thinned out a lot on his back.

[Storyseeker]

Quick update before I fall into be (I'll reply to your comments later )

I left the girls together for three hours with me in and out of the room to check their progress (clearly they're doing well if I feel comfortable walking out of the room). So I pop back in at the end of the session and what do I see? Four ratty girls piled on each other in a corner with Aggie snoozing stretched out across the pile like a black cherry on top.

[breyer08]

That is wonderful news!!!! I can just picture it, too! hahahaha!

[Vladina]

Ha ha!! I love it! Ratty pile with Aggie Cherry on top! That must have been great to see! Bet you wish you had your camera with you when you saw that, eh?

[Storyseeker]

Just a little sigh on my part tonight.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly at my house.

Good: Sweet Devon came through her surgery well, and is resting tonight.
Bad: Tonight I found a tumor on Custard...though it feels identical to Devon's who had a non-cancerous one. So, another tumor removal and spay scheduled for next week.
The Ugly: We have mites for the first time thanks to the original owners who didn't see the need to freeze bedding. (not my partner I took these girls from, but the owners who surrendered them to her in the first place).

The Uglier: Me. I'm running on 4 hours of sleep. Summer time is crazy work season at my job. A reason I didn't want to take in new rats just yet.

The Cute: All Nine of them. They really are jewels in spite of all the work.

[Vladina]

The Good, the Good and the Good-Update Response!


The Good: Your kids are indeed all jewels and they are SO very lucky to have Storyseeker Super Mom at the helm, even though I am sorry you are running low on sleep. You truly rock, lady. Yay!


The Good: Devon is recovering nicely at home after her surgery and Custard will do wonderfully as well, after her surgery, I am sure of it. Another Yay!


The Good: No more mites in these kids' lives now that they are away from people who do not freeze their bedding. Yays and yays!

All good, coming from a glass is always half full opinion. Cheers and loud applause for you Story.