Rats are fighting!!!

I'm a little sad for this post but mainly frustrated!
I have 2 female rats and one male. He knocked them both up and are going to have their first litters in a couple weeks. However, I found bite marks on the beige female and moved her out separately.
A couple days later, I found a large bite out of the back of the black female's back. Ugh... So I moved her to a hospital tank and she healed just fine.
Last night I put the females together, and I went to check on them this morning and the black rat had been nipping at the beige female quite a bit.
They are separated completely now but I really wanted to keep them in a group and am highly frustrated that I am wasting 3 cage spaces for what should have only been one main tub and one birthing tub.

Any suggestions?

Start over. I don't tolerate biting or fighting rats...

I have lost 3 females in 3 different tubs, at least you know they are fighting. I still dont know what happened:confused::confused:

It's not so easy to start over here in Nebraska :( I have a hard time finding rats anywhere other than petco/petsmart. I did find a rat from a lady that lives an hour away and she delivered, but no such luck.

Maybe I can hold back their babies??? The one female I have is really sweet and isn't fighting back. I'm definitely keeping her. The poor thing. Maybe she'll produce a nice stud.

It might be a bit different but I used to Breed Lab mice for my highschool when i was a kid, that happened too when the females got pregnant. i usually took out the females and didnt have any problems i know its a waste of space but you have a lot of offspring coming and most likely the other female rat would kill the litter of babies from the other. =( sorry to hear about that. sometimes its the complete opposite and they will help take care of the other babies. sounds like hes right start over, or kill the one thats doing it.

Hum :( I will probably have to keep a baby from beige mom's litter and a baby from black mom's litter and keep beige mom ... Hope for the best. .. Maybe I'll have beige mom raise my picks from black mom's litter since she is so sweet. Black mom would probably kill beige mom's babies but doubtful vise versa. Of course I'll have to monitor closely to find out. I think I'll have much more luck doing that. Black mom will probably have to find a new home so I better get some sweet black babies from her.

Either replace her, or try adding more rats. The more rats, the less likely one rat is to be very dominant over the other.

I held back a bunch, looks like I am going to have to hold back another litter or two for picks

Hold back 1.2 from each females litters and start new groups with their young. And use 2 more females one from each females litter and put them with the Other breeding male.

The 3 might not like one another so best start them off young again

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

I'm a little sad for this post but mainly frustrated!
I have 2 female rats and one male. He knocked them both up and are going to have their first litters in a couple weeks. However, I found bite marks on the beige female and moved her out separately.
A couple days later, I found a large bite out of the back of the black female's back. Ugh... So I moved her to a hospital tank and she healed just fine.
Last night I put the females together, and I went to check on them this morning and the black rat had been nipping at the beige female quite a bit.
They are separated completely now but I really wanted to keep them in a group and am highly frustrated that I am wasting 3 cage spaces for what should have only been one main tub and one birthing tub.

Any suggestions?

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Jess,

Try keeping an extra female from each of the litters and let them grow up with mom.. Cycle the male through when its time for breeding again.

Worth a shot and you will end up with two more breeding females..

Rich

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.

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

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.

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Well yeah once they get to that certain age they get separated. That's kind of common sense to most people. :)