[OliveBlossom]

My glider Belldandy is eight months old. I brought her home four months ago and we've already bonded extremely well. Yet I couldn't spend as much time with her as I used to, so two weeks ago I brought home a new baby girl--Penelo, two months old--to keep Bell company. The two couldn't be any more different in personality. Belldandy is very sweet and curious and somewhat shy. Penelo is fiesty, quick, extremely intelligent and needs a serious attitude adjustment. I keep the girls separate because Penelo tried to attack Bell when I introduced them, but each day I scoot their cages an inch closer to each other. Now this is what I don't understand. A week ago I began waking up to Bell talking to Penelo. She will bark once and then hiss once or twice, slowly. She will repeat this a few times, but Penelo ignores her. A few hours later Penelo will begin barking, quick annoying barks, but never while looking in Belldandy's direction. After a week's worth of sleep interrupted by this, I took this as a somewhat good sign and inched the cages closer, now an inch apart. However, Bell started lunging at Penelo while crabbing, and Penelo just sat there shaking. I immediately pulled the cages two inches apart. Bell then calmed down, barked, and began to hiss again, and Penelo, instantly recovered and now playing with toys, ignored her.

What in the world does this mean?

 

[angelic4296]

OK, I don't think you're familiar with the intro process. Cages first of all should never be closer than 6 inches apart - this prevents anyone from grabbing tails or feet and chomping down. You need to get them used to eachother's scent. Begin this by swapping their fleece blankies - if you don't have these, they're simply glider-sized pieces of fleece that you put in their pouches to keep them warm. Swap these into eachother's pouches. After a few days, actually swap out their cage stuff - pouches, any fleece parts of cage sets, toys etc. You want them to really get used to eachother's smell being in EACHOTHER'S territory. After another week or so, actually let them spend a few nights in eachother's cages.

As far as face to face contact, it needs to be a NEUTRAL area - a tent (usually people get a Gengi or a Sansbug) or a bathtub - somewhere where NEITHER of their scents are. Be ready to separate them if they "ball up" - curl into a ball around eachother and start biting, crabbing full force, and attacking. However, normal hisses, short crabs, and "pssst" sounds are all normal and to be expected.

The cage you eventually put them in needs to also be neutral, so you need to THOROUGHLY wash all fleece/cloth items and toys and really scrub down the cage so neither can get aggressive over the other being in "her" territory. Intros are a process - you can't just put them together and think they're going to be fine - in lots of cases, that's not what happens.

Hope this helps.