When Joe got home last night I was telling him about Hershey’s new-found friendliness and mused whether he’d behave that way around Joe as well. We went upstairs and let Hershey out of his cage to put him to the test and sure enough, he was sociable toward Joe too! It’s very exciting and rewarding to observe an animal who just a week ago hugged the corners of the room and ran away to hide if you came near him or made a noise to now run toward you and sit on your lap.
On the spur of the moment we decided to let Winston out of his cage at the same time to see what would happen. They immediately tussled, but not in an aggressive way. More in a “we’re establishing the pecking order” way. After that Hershey just followed Winston around the room with Winston alternating between ignoring him and pinning him down to show him he’s in charge. There was no squeaking during any of this to indicate aggression so we just kept a close eye on them. And interestingly enough, once Winston was out, Hershey was even friendlier. He’d actually sit still for more than a second and let me pet him. I think he was taking his cue from Winston who will happily sit in your lap for minutes at a time as long as he’s being scratched or petted.
We will repeat the process daily for at least a week before we even consider housing them together. Besides, at this point I don’t even have a cage they can both live in together since the larger of the two has the wider spaced bars I’m concerned Hershey could squeeze through if motivated enough. They may just have to be content with playtime interaction until we get a bigger cage. I’m debating whether I should just take the money out of savings to buy one, but I hate watching the balance go down when I’ve become so accustomed to it going up (before January, that is). If only I could see the future…