Another Attempt at Introductions

For the last two weeks Rossby and Sprite have been living side by side with CB, Foehn, and Cirrus, but separate, in the large cage. In addition, we have been switching sides every night so that they have to live in each others "stuff". This has gone very well and none of them have had any problems sleeping in a pouch previously occupied by the others. Nights have been fairly quiet as well.

So we decided to try introductions again today. This time we introduced Sprite to Foehn, since they seemed to have the most problems last time. Into the bathtub they went. Sprite was very nervous at the start, and Foehn was nonchalant for the most part. Sprite crabbed a little as Foehn approached her, but I had my hand over her with a piece of fleece to keep her calm. For the most part they were OK with everything, but Sprite was looking for any way to get out of that tub, climbing on my arm every chance she could get. I removed all the fleece (save for one piece in case I had top break up anything) and left one pouch for them. Foehn crawled in readily - she wanted to sleep - but Sprite was hesitant. She poked her head in a few times, but would not go in. There were no fights or crabbing - she jsut did not want to get too close to Foehn.

I figured I'd wait her out. She would get tired soon enough and want to sleep, and that pouch was the only comfortable place for her. An hour later she was still running around the bathroom, having a great time climbing and jumping. At that point we figured we would bring Rossby into the picture. Perhaps Sprite would go into the pouch if he was there. I fetched Rossby from his nice warm pouch in the cage and brought him in. He readily crawled into the pouch with Foehn. Now Sprite was thinking a little more about going in. Although she briefly ventured in and then quickly out she still had no interest in settling in.

The tip of Sprite's tail is the only thing outside the pouch after
she decided to join Rossby and Foehn.

It took about 45 minutes before Sprite was visibly wearing out. She wanted to rest, and the only place was that pouch. She stood at the opening and sniffed around. Rossby poked his head out as if to reassure her, and to my surprise she crawled in and stayed. There was a little crabbing on her part, but nothing serious. It helped that Rossby was between her and Foehn. By the time I gave them mealworms a few minutes ago, they were all squished together in one corner of the pouch. We kept them in the pouch with us until I put them in the cage after mealworms.The three of them will be together in one side of the cage tonight and we'll see how it goes. If this looks like it's working, the next step will be to bring Cirrus and CB into the mix.  We're keeping our fingers crossed!