So I control breed my rats as I don’t have a high need for feeders. Thus they are treated more like pets. Kept in critter nations or modified large totes.
I had a pair of males that were from separate litters but raised together. They are a year and a half old now and one started fighting and drawing blood. I split them up and after some healing time tried pairing the one with my newer male rat. Well that one decided he was going to fight my newer rat. Like aggressively.
So at this point… I think I’m just going to keep my newer male as he’s a loveable cupcake names Socks (solid black with white feet). I was just worried that he’d be lonely when off on his own as I don’t keep the males with my females to give them breaks and because I only have a small local demand I need to meet for feeders.
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I wouldn’t, rats are highly social animals, they can get depressed if kept alone. When kept as pets, many actually recommend keeping at least 3 together so that if one dies, the other won’t be alone.
This article is pretty informative, it also talks about how to go about introducing rats properly National Fancy Rat Society - NFRS
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Rats are so social, they really shouldn’t be kept alone. Human attention isn’t really a substitute for companionship from their own species.
How are you introducing the males? Are you just putting them in the same cage, or are you introducing them on some more neutral territory first? The latter tends to work out better than the former, in my experience.
I once had a huge cage with 4 intact males that all lived together peacefully, so it is possible to have a peaceful “bachelor group.”
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Male rats should do just fine living in groups… as long as there are no females with them in their enclosure.
How do you introduce males to males?
And do you offer a breeding group their own seperate enclosure when the time comes? (Ex: just 1 male to a few females).
I’ve been breeding rats for around 3 years now and have never had trouble with my males in their group enclosure, but I only keep the friendliest and most socialized of my males and cull the rest that show any aggressive behavior towards me or other rats.
The best way to introduce males or really any new rats is to put them in a small confined enclosure thats been thoroughly cleaned with fresh bedding, known as “neutral territory” as @jawramik mentioned, and let them sit in there for around 15-30 minutes. They may scuffle a bit but thats their way of establishing their dominance of the group, as long as the fights remain as their typical wrestling and not full blown fighting and biting everything should be fine. After that they can be introduced back into their permanent enclosure (after it is cleaned) and watched closely for any more fights that may break out.
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The two that started fighting and drawing blood were in a 2 story critter nation. So hides and space shouldnt have been the issue.
When introducing it has been on nutural grounds as to keep any territory disputes out of the question.
In the past I havent had this issue. These two just started fighting non stop. They arent even near the females as I was testing that as well. I am more baffled as they have been fine for the better part of a year now. But i had the split them up after seeing there was blood being drawn and thats all you heard walking by the room was those two fighting.
At worse I have two litters growing out right now. I may keep a male or two from those and see if i can pair them with my newer lad. The two males fighting was only 2nd generations and thus far the 3rd and 4th generation babies have been far easier to handle and socialize.
I know these are feeders/breeders but the orginal 2 pairs I started with were mean and bit all the time… so maybe its stemming from that?
Aggressive behavior in the feeder stock is also a consideration. If I have an animal that will run up and bite me*, I will cull it. If I ever have one that really tears one up, that’s also a cull. Especially with how easy it is for rats to abscess from bites.
And when I mean aggressive, I’ve seen a male rat (not mine but in my care) tear open another rat down to the muscle and it needed 6 stitches and flushes to keep the pocket from infection. They will not mess around if they are prone to fights.
I honestly did not like mice because of how flighty and nippy they are … And now going through and sorting them makes me happy. All because one female I managed to tame down threw a really sweet and even tempered male. It’s easy to tell which ones are from his line. They’ll be lighter colors but still have dark eyes. Haven’t been bit by one in weeks while sorting.
A different line I have is still flighty as heck but they don’t latch onto my fingers like I’ve had mice do in the past.
After getting some new blood in my rat lines I ended up with the most recent group being really flighty. So that is something I may need to work on next. Some of the adults are still from my tamer group so hopefully I can get that back in.
- Edit- by bite I do mean reacting aggressive to the enclosure being opened and drawing blood. I actually encourage my little ones to come over and play nibble.
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Yeah I’d definitely start considering breeding for behavior and paying close attention to the behavior of your rats, both to eachother and you.
Its definitely not fun to breed in aggressive rats, some will settle down with age and socializing. Its definitely possible, I’ve done it myself… but some will never truly get that aggression out. And you definitely don’t want to risk having rats that will eventually bite you, their bites are no joke at all. Got bit really bad by a bitey momma that attacked me when I opened her enclosure to check on her pups and I still have a solid lumpy scar from it 2 years later. As soon as her pups were fully weaned I culled her and I didn’t keep any of her offspring for future breeding.
Heck I breed ASFs and they are notorious biters, but I selectively bred the friendliest ones and now I have a colony that doesn’t bite buuut they are still flighty. I’m hoping after a couple more generations I can have some hand tame ASFs
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I havent had issues with my mice. I think i got lucky though. I have a flighty male but no biting. Even when coutning and gendering the babies. The worse experience i had with mice was my first female passong away after she gave birth… 
i had to cull the litter as i had nothing else nursing and that male has been anti social… but im going to try to introduce some females to him soon… it was sad he was trying to keep the babies warm but thats all he could do for them.
Rats … i have culled any that flat out attack. I even gave some second chances (sometimes they can be protective of the litters). But after being bit well and good once… i dont risk that anymore.
These males werent fighting that bad but i did have to wound treat my white and gray male for his wounds.
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Thats what I started doing after my first female and nearly getting bit to the bone and just shy of a trip to the hospital. That momma left a scar and its been a year and a half later … still hurts sometimes.
Breeding for behavior is why i even had a 3rd male growing out. He has been the easiest to one thus far. Next to a female that im keeping for sure. She runs to the front and greets you. Never offered to bite. Nibbles yes, but never bite, let alone close to drawing blood.
If i had choice in my starting stock it would have made this all easier. But … im glad ive bee. Able to see progress woth selection breeding.
These two males fighting just caught me off guard as they were fine. Till they weren’t.
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Oof … Yeah that’s rough rodents, especially mice are really prone to dystocia. I’ve lost a couple girls that way.