An Unexpected Setback

On Sunday morning we found CB, Foehn, and Rossby sleeping in the large Christmas tree pouch, and Sprite by herself in one of the other pouches. In and of itself this was not that unusual, but it was not something we hoped for. We figured that after another night or two they would get their differences worked out. Overnight Sunday/Monday turned out to be not much different. We were monitoring them during the night using a baby monitor and we could hear that there were still periodic problems. On Monday morning they were still in the "four and one" sleeping arrangement. We felt bad for Sprite because she and Rossby are close, and we knew she missed being with him.

On Monday night we had all five in the office for play time and things started to get a little ugly. Foehn started chasing Sprite and then they would ball up. After separating Sprite would run off to a corner away from the others, but Foehn persisted on chasing her. A ball-up on a encounter is one thing, but for Foehn to be actually chasing Sprite was something we have never seen. After three noisy and scary encounters (and Foehn clamping down on my finger), we decided to take Foehn out of the room. We put here in our small cage and figured she could chill there for the night. She had been in heat and we thought that might have be part of the reason she was behaving this way. However, before we ended play time CB started chasing Sprite, although it didn't seem to be as aggressive as Foehn. After play time ended I placed the four of them in the cage together and things seemed to be OK.

Sometime around 12:30 a.m. a loud commotion coming in over the baby monitor woke me up. I went to check out situation and at first nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. After watching for a short time CB came up to Sprite and they crabbed at each other, She took off and he followed.  She jumped into one of the wheels to run and soon CB jumped in as well. They tussled briefly and she bolted out of the wheel. She was leaping across the cage to get away from him and I was concerned she would hurt herself. It was clear we could not leave her in there for the night. I gathered her up in a pouch and placed Foehn in another pouch. I returned Foehn to the main cage, and placed Sprite in the small cage.  It was quiet the rest of the night.

The next morning we decided to move Rossby into the small cage with Sprite - she seemed lost without him. As soon as we did it was clear that it was the right thing to do. They briefly nuzzled each other, and then Sprite climbed on Rossby's back. She hung on to him even as he tried to move around the cage. It was almost heartbreaking. They both climbed into the sleeping pouch and settled in for the day.

Here you can see the divider in the cage.
The Christmas tree pouch is on the trio's side.
CB can be seen on the lower partof the divider.

We would not separate Sprite from Rossby after this, so we needed to come up with an alternate living arrangement until and if they can be reintroduced to the trio. They had been using the new "vacation" cage, but we wanted them to be close but separated and the floor arrangement wouldn't allow that. So, last night I converted the largecage into two "townhomes". I installed a divider down the middle of the cage using plastic hardware cloth (sometimes called landware). That allowed them close proximity but keeps them separate. Their first night in their respective new homes was a quiet one.