Separating mated pairs

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Inigo

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this is a very long winded post so if you're unintrested in reading the details I am still grateful to hear your advice, so here's the basics:

1) I have four breeding pairs and am unable to continue breeding, and it is my hope to keep them all, housing males and females separately. how do i separate males from females with minimal anxiety?

2) I have made introdutions between female and male, but is there anything i can do to smooth introdctions between same sex groupings, in particular considering an appearent rivalry.




I've been breeding for several years now, but i do it exclusively for a pet store where i have the choice as to who and where my kits go. But, as a result of moving and an added workload i can no longer be so descriminatory about where my kits end up or devote as much time to handling them or paying attention to their mothers throughout the process and so I have decided to divide my males and females and only breed on a case to case basis. I currently have four mated pairs and have no desire to part with any of them. my wish is to seperate them (male from female) with as little stress on them as possible. I am aware that the males and females will have to be kept in seprate areas of the house, and that the introductions may be a lengthy process, my problem is that i so not know where to begin.

First of all they are housed as pairs, each in a critter nation, all in one room, the same room that they have their playtimes in, and the same room that any introductions have been made in.

I have 2 females that are already so friendly, even cuddly, that I have caged them together under other circumstances with no issue, but the other two females seem to be rather dominant to me though i have not made any attempt at introduction between them.

As for the males, i havent the faintest clue as to how they will get along accept of course between Zapp and Hermes, these two have had a long standing rivalry from even the smallest encounters over the most dominant female i own. I know that males are supposed to co-exist better, but i am anxious about this transition because of the rivalry --> Zapp has always been Inigo's mate and Hermes has always wanted her over any other female. I know it seems silly but if you saw it as an owner you would know.

I can acquire spare cages to make introductions and i have the luxury of time, so please, how can i do this responsibly? Thank you for listening :D
 
Have you thought about getting a good vet to neuter the males?

I've always had better luck pairing females than males, with two males who want to fight, and two dominant females... you're probably going to end up with about eight cages...
 
I agree with getting them snipped and leaving them with their women. I have always had a more difficult time pairing males that have been in breeding, they are much more in tune with their testosterone.
 
Neutering may be your best option - but...

My favorite way to introduce anyone is the car ride o' confusion method...Since you have 4 cages now you could try to introduce them as pairs (drive em around, use all the tricks) to see who gets along with who...and then leave them as two sets of each sex.

Or you could take them all on a fairly long trip in the car, and then use any of the tricks (trim whiskers, vanilla, smoosh, cage in cage) to try and reintroduce them all together in one same sex cage under supervision of course, in one superclean (think neutral) cage.

I would say your odds of getting pairs to get along are better than trying to get 4 of them to get along but you could get lucky or end up with 8 cages. Good luck!
 
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