Update on housing Northern BTS together
Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:09 am
A few of you may remember a couple months ago, I had posted about my northerns coming out of brumation and being completely unable to stand each other. Before brumation, they had lived together for about a year, bred, and no problems were had. Immediately after coming up from brumation, there was some breeding activity, and then some extreme aggression began taking place between the two.
I had asked for advice from anyone who had tried housing theirs together as well, and got some response that was helpful. What I ended up doing was housing them separately until both were back up to their pre-brumation weight, and fat and sassy, and generally doing well. I then tried some intros while soaking, while outside the cage, and then in the cage itself.
No dice. Outside of the cage, some minor huffing and puffing, and they generally avoided each other, but no actual chasing each other down types of aggression. Soaking, no problem at all. But in the cage itself? Nope, while initially there wasn't much in the way of fighting, after a day together, this morning the male was actively displaying towards my female (which is interesting, if you haven't seen it before), and while initially she avoided it, she did end up going after him. So, they are separated, and will remain so except for breeding. Neither one has serious injuries, I removed them before that could happen, but they were definitely intending to cause some harm if they remained together for too much longer.
I am not sure why they were okay before, but are not now - I have no way to test things like hormonal levels (could be brumation triggered a change in those that had not been there previously - this year was the first year I brumated them), and perhaps they were just young enough before that they did not have what they felt were established territories. I don't have a larger cage anymore to test out if it's just not enough space, which I suspect may be a big part of it - with all the space in the apartment to choose from and interact with, they would interact, but on their own terms. The cage I was trying for them now is only 4 x 2 x 2, okay for one adult but cramped quarters for two.
Anyway, for anyone who had read that or followed that at all, the end result is that they are separate and will remain so. Thanks to the folks who gave me advice the first time around, I appreciate the help!
-Jen
I had asked for advice from anyone who had tried housing theirs together as well, and got some response that was helpful. What I ended up doing was housing them separately until both were back up to their pre-brumation weight, and fat and sassy, and generally doing well. I then tried some intros while soaking, while outside the cage, and then in the cage itself.
No dice. Outside of the cage, some minor huffing and puffing, and they generally avoided each other, but no actual chasing each other down types of aggression. Soaking, no problem at all. But in the cage itself? Nope, while initially there wasn't much in the way of fighting, after a day together, this morning the male was actively displaying towards my female (which is interesting, if you haven't seen it before), and while initially she avoided it, she did end up going after him. So, they are separated, and will remain so except for breeding. Neither one has serious injuries, I removed them before that could happen, but they were definitely intending to cause some harm if they remained together for too much longer.
I am not sure why they were okay before, but are not now - I have no way to test things like hormonal levels (could be brumation triggered a change in those that had not been there previously - this year was the first year I brumated them), and perhaps they were just young enough before that they did not have what they felt were established territories. I don't have a larger cage anymore to test out if it's just not enough space, which I suspect may be a big part of it - with all the space in the apartment to choose from and interact with, they would interact, but on their own terms. The cage I was trying for them now is only 4 x 2 x 2, okay for one adult but cramped quarters for two.
Anyway, for anyone who had read that or followed that at all, the end result is that they are separate and will remain so. Thanks to the folks who gave me advice the first time around, I appreciate the help!
-Jen