Bruce meets Sly and Chuck

[sparkiesnaps]

Introduced our 6 week old babies to Bruce in the bathtub this afternoon. Some success; the babies were very keen, clambering all over Bruce and grooming him, sadly he didn't take too kindly to the attention.
There was no aggression, but lots of slightly annoyed squeaking and running away on Bruce's part. Oddly it was the babies doing all the mounting- this is our first time doing introductions but we've done out research and I'd read that we were likely to see the adult mounting the babies, not the other way around.
Bruce seemed quite frightened, even though he'd been chattering away to them through the bars for the last 2 days and seemed keen to meet them. He's never been a dominant goo, but I'm surprised that even 6 week old babies managed to dominate him.
We'll try again tomorrow and see how things go.

[deguconvert]

That is interesting . . . although I have read a few threads on here where the babies are the more aggressive, though not violent. They just seem to want to get to know the other goos without the inhibitions that come with age. Be careful not to rush the introductions. Slower seems to be better with degus, and you will achieve a better bond between them all. Sometimes it just takes no time at all, they just click . . . but that isn't very common. If you can manage it, give them lots of time to talk between cages and swap them back and forth between cages, or at least some of the bedding from each of the cages. Patience is a huge plus when introducing degus to each other. MJ, one of our members, has massive patience and has done very well introducing degus. His is a good example to follow! I hope Bruce and the two little ones will bond well for you!

[sparkiesnaps]

What a difference a day makes! After swapping cages for a while, then trying them again in the bathtub with much better results, we decided to let them spend some more time together in Bruce's cage since they all obviously hated the bathtub and...success! I was worried it might be a little too fast, but they've been together happily for about an hour now and are all sleeping in the nest box together as I write! amazing! Bruce seems very taken by Sly in particular. The only spats have been over the wheel and over bedding (Bruce is a little obsessive compulsive about the nest box and got very annoyed when Chuck decided to rearrange things lol).
It's so lovely to see them so happy together, the change in Bruce is amazing! I'm so proud of my boys Hopefully they'll be ready to spend the night together by the weekend!