INTROS IS HELL -- Part II

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MY GENERAL DEMEANOR IS THIS: prepare for at least 3 days of hell. If you've never been in therapy, this is a good time to start. Hang in there any way you can: post to the Ratlist, do your art, consult your spiritual advisor, amp up your meds. Keep in mind: good times is coming. And the first time you see your whole gang sleeping together in the hammock, you will be happy.

MY GENERAL APPROACH, and that of many other Ratlisters, can be summed up in one word. Confusion. When introducing new rats to my existing colony, I'm going to try to confuse my established rats as much as possible -- make them a little unsure of themselves and undermine their cockiness. In this way, I'm hopefully going to bamboozle them into accepting the new rats.

1) If you work, intro on the weekend when you'll be home with the rats all day. If you have to go out: separate the old and new rats!

2) Do most of the intro work during the day when rats are sleepy and less active. You may have to separate them in the evening, when they are most awake.

3) Clean the cage completely. Get the established smell out. Buy Nilodor Tap-A-Drop odor neutralizer in the pet store. Take the cage apart completely. Take the cage off the tray and put it in the shower, run hot water on it for 3 minutes. Put 2 drops of Nilodor in a quart of hot, soapy water. Get a floor brush and wash the cage. With an old toothbrush, get into the corners where hair accumulates. Rinse for 1 minute. Dry with a towel. Now clean and deodorize everything else: the pan, all the rags, all the toys, and the wooden boxes, too! Wash the water bottle and dishes with soap and hot water.

4) Vanilla mark all the rats. Every rat: put vanilla on their noses and on their bum holes.

5) Keep gloves right next to the cage where you can grab them and get them on fast! I use those cotton gardening gloves with the rubber dots. If it looks like the fights are going to be especially bad: I double the thickness by putting one glove inside the other.

6) First: put all the rats in the completely empty cage and observe.

7) Brace yourself. There will naturally be some screaming and facing off : the hardest thing is discriminating between natural posing and a dangerous situation. You have to let them work it out but you must to avoid blood shed and injury. Stay close!

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