rat problems........

[threezero]

so here's my scenario. I set up a 3.1 colony 2 months back. The rats are now probably around 3-4 months old now, no signs of babies but the colony seems to get along fine and I sometimes put rats that my snake refuse in this colony temporally and they seem to accept newcomers just fine.

Now the impatient me is thinking maybe the male in my first colony is infertile thats why i'm not seeing any babies...so today I look on kijiji and someone is giving away a pair of adult males rats (according to the ad 6 months old and has been living together with each other since babies). So i went and pick the two boys up and set them up in a new tank. I read somewhere that 2 bonded males wont fight over females.... sooooo the impatient me here drop 2 of my females rats (which is half the size of the adult males) into the 2 males' tank. Immediately the males start beating the crap out of the two females, by the time i finally got to seperate them the two females are already bloody all over...

now the two female is back in with the original colony (I feel so bad)

and

the two newly acquire male now wont stop fighting with each other..... one of the male is clearly more aggressive than the other male and beating on the other one every 5 mins. like full on aggression with the hair raise and teeth chattering. The one being beat on is so jumpy now even a slight touch will sent it into defensive mode...

I don't know what to do, my plan was to have only 2 colonies and now i have 3 male, 1 seems to either infertile or too young and two that no longer gets along with each other and seems to want to kill the female in put in with them rather than mate... any advice?

[PitOnTheProwl]

first I hope you mean 1.3??
what temp are they in and how much do the girls weigh?
I keep all my male breeders together when they are on break, they do fight at first but then all is good a couple hours later.
I have never had a male beat a female but then again I never have more than one male around the girls.

[DooLittle]

Maybe feed off the more aggressive male? I also have never had more than one male at a time with the girlies.

[MrLang]

1 male per female group.

I'd be surprised if they are infertile, but I guess it's possible. The females need to be old enough and weigh enough to get pregnant. The male also needs to be manly enough for the girl to let him breed her. If he was 'ready' you would see him getting to work furiously very often.

I've had new males fight and sometimes they fight when they get reintroduced. The best tip I have seen for this is to put a dab of vanilla extract on the back of the head between the ears and introduce them into a neutral environment IE one that has been freshly cleaned with new bedding and use a cleaner with some kind of scent. Give them lots of treats as you put them together so they ignore each other and focus on the treats.

I would probably feed off any rat that caused another to bleed. Even when mine fight it has never escalated to that point.

[threezero]

The most aggressive one is one of the male I bought home today. He is way too big for any of my snake.... The only male I could get rid of the the male from the original colony I kind if feel a little attach to the little fellow lol...

The females are around the 230g mark. If I do feed off my og male is it a good idea to put one of my new males in with the colony of girls? I'm afraid he will go kill all my girls

[wolfy-hound]

Kill the aggressive male. Then switch the more timid male for your original male and see if that fixes things.

I second the use of a neutral enclosure for introducing the rats. When you dumped two new rats into the cage of the two boys, you completely freaked out the males because the girls were intruders. They were probably already under stress from the move and a different home, then there's girls and now they're still freaking out.

Any rat that causes blood to be drawn in culled from my colony immediately.

[wilomn]

Also, if the boys were raised with no girls, they never had the mating urge. You drop 2 girls in there and instinct takes over and they fight for the right to procreate.

What are you feeding them?

[threezero]

is it true that rats wil castrate each other when fighting? I promise the girl i got the two male rats from that they would not become feeder but on the big black rat is way way way too aggressive, it tear so many holes in the other male and he just bit me. I'm gonna get rid of him even if my snakes can't take him. I'm trying to find someone with a big enough snake to eat him for now he has to stay with the other male.

I heard the mice will castrate each other but wil rats do it too?

I look at the male in my original colony he is ALWAYS sleeping, is that why he is not getting the job done? Or and I feed high quality dog kibble with supplement throughout the week.

[threezero]

update: just saw the male in my og colony does his thing with one of the females. So will keep an eye to see i get any babies in a few weeks

[carlson]

All my big males are super lazy, they normallu get perked up for a bit as soon as they see the females. Then by next day they are lounging around and doing their thing at their pace. I joke that I could leave a few males with their tubs left open all day an they'll still be there when I get home

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