Rats are fighting!!!

Thanks everyone. Great advice. I will do that!

Holding over and starting new groups is always a good idea, we rotate females out quite often and almost always have young holdovers to raise up for future breeding.

I'd blame the male in this case and replace him if you can, it's nice to have a dominate male but when he's forcing pregnant females to breed with him and bites them in the process then he's too aggressive and I'd pull him.
Young males tend to mind their manners better sometimes than older males :P

Don'trule out Petco. I picked up my seal-point siamese female from Petco and she had 22 babies her first litter and 18 the second. She's just as nice as the other rats I picked up from a breeder and the pups are solid as a rock, physically and mentally.

I agree with getting rid of the male but I would feed him off rather than place him with someone. The same goes for the dominant female. Contrary to what the others said, I would not breed any of the offspring. Not worth it IMHO.

I actually got two of my rats from the box petstores, and they have decent care of their pets thankfully. However the prices are horrible. I don't mind spending $10 on a rat, but I prefer not to if I don't have to, especially when there are better rats out there available. Finding them is the problem :(

My nicest rat is from there! I will definitely get rid of the male but I don't have a snake big enough to eat him, lol. And the dominant female as well.

I don't think aggression can be ruled as genetic, so I'll at least see what kind of behaviors I get with the offspring, especially if I let the nice rat raise em.

Uggg sorry Jess, I agree with, start new group, add more females, feed of agressive ones.

Man I better buy an adult ball python to feed off my problems. LOL

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

Man I better buy an adult ball python to feed off my problems. LOL

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I had an female breeder get real aggressive and start biting the bars on the lab cage when I changed the water. She's in the freezer now because I don't have a snake or know anyone that has a snake that can eat her. She weighs 454g.

BTW, she's available for pickup in North Jersey. :D

I agree whole heartedly with snakesRkewl. Hold back pups from the two litters and when you get a chance get rid of your group or the male and trouble female. Breeding a small group of rats can go very smoothly if the rats themselves are chosen very carefully and socialized young. Pay attention to your two litters, sometimes my most docile rats were favoured by the Mother rats as pups. Avoid outcasts or bossy individuals.

I have a beige female who thinks she's the alpha female and beats up one all my other females. Heck she even beats up on our youngest male when he's in there as well. If she ever starts getting aggressive she's gone. Right now she just fights but doesn't bite. Hold back as many females as possible and a male or two. Raising them all together from a young age tends to mellow them out.

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Originally Posted by swalters

Raising them all together from a young age tends to mellow them out.

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This is a biggie for me, I raise all of my groups together right from weanling size and the females almost always hold off the males advances until they are 10-12 weeks old and then they drop litters around 14-16 weeks old.