first photos of Krümel...

[ratcreature]

While I'm -- for the obvious reasons -- not in the giddy "new rats!" headspace, I did take some photos. Krümel is curious, but still somewhat shy, that is he still prefers to run and hide in a tube or a basket once he fetched treats from me, though he does come onto my arm when I coax him with food to get to said treats, and while he is already used to humans handling him he's not yet happy to be just picked up by me. So photos are a bit more difficult. Also I apologize for the blurriness.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

*nods sadly* how will you keep them, always seperated?

[ratcreature]

Yeah. I can separate the modules in my cage easily to open or close them to each other, so right now I'm doing that. I talked with the breeder I got them from and she advised against trying with Ben again, because he wasn't aggressive at first, but then just killed Gonzo, so he wasn't just interested in his submission.

I mean the barrier is still a mesh one for group integration purpose so they can see and smell each other through it, and I may try to see how they react to each other one Krümel isn't so tiny anymore that Ben could kill him in second, and maybe try with some limited supervised contact outside the cage, though when Ben was still with his brother Dustin they were more aggressive and likely to scuffle outside the cage. Then Dustin usually was the more aggressive and dominant one, despite being smaller (he had a mean kickboxing trick for overpowering Ben), and they never had so much as a bite wound from each other. Anyway, I will get another baby rat from the next expected litter so at least Krümel won't be alone, because even though my anxiety about introducing rats to each other is at an all time high it would be unfair to little Krümel to keep him in isolation through no fault of his.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Yeah.