Will females castrate males?

[Somed00d]

I have 4 females and a male that I have saved to increase my number of breeders, I introduced the male a few days ago and today when I was checking on things he didn't look so manly anymore I had a hard time figuring out which was the male!! It looks like his testicles are gone? There dosn't seem to be any wounds but something is not right with this lad.

Any suggestions? I have moved him to a temporary cage to get a break but I think he will end up a feeder. I have one more male up to size I can use instead of him but now i am worried the girls will do the same thing.

Richard

[littleindiangirl]

Ummm

He would be dead if the females too his bits like that, not to mention large amounts of blood. They can retract them a bit just like men can.

[Bruce Whitehead]

I have seen females go after the boy bits before.

But once they get the pecking order figured out and the girls put him in his place he should be fine.

I know Jo had a few girls take a round out of a boy a few years back and they worked it out OK in the end.

He may have retracted them as the girls were overly attentive!

No blood... then he is still intact.

Bruce

[Bruce Whitehead]

They can retract them a bit just like men can.

I know there is a joke in there dying to be fished out but I am way too lazy and it is for the best.

[dsirkle]

No. There is no legal marriage among rodents.

[blackcrystal22]

Ahahaha,
I don't think they can die but I'm only knowledgeable about this with mice. I've had a male become almost completely castrated from some females before and there was a lot of blood but he survived.. I donno how much of a difference it would make with rats considering they are bigger in both ways..

Anyhow, since there was no blood, he probably just retracted them.. try taking him out and pressing on his belly, they may pop back out.

[Somed00d]

He is looking pretty weak on top of the missing bits.. I think he will become feeder material any how. Perhaps he just worked himself to the bone?

Richard

[blackcrystal22]

He is looking pretty weak on top of the missing bits.. I think he will become feeder material any how. Perhaps he just worked himself to the bone?

Richard

Naw, all male mammals (Including Humans!) make millions and billions of new sperm every day. It's not like a female where when she's out of eggs, shes OUT. Males keep makin em, females are born with them.

[Bruce Whitehead]

Perhaps he just worked himself to the bone?

Ugh.. my bad... there... is... a... joke... there...

But in seriousness, if he isn't going to be worthy, then yeah...

I tend to introduce my male before they become sexually mature, never had a problem that way with a new colony member.

And the females will recognize the males that come back to the colony without too much huff and puff.

Bruce

[frankykeno]

I had the gawd awful experience just the other day of having an adult male rat basically castrate a male cage mate so believe me you'd know if that had happened (think blood, stuff hanging out and well, enough said...there's no way you wouldn't notice).

Young male rats can retract their bits quite a lot, not so much as they get older, breed more and basically grow pretty large butt pillows. Check a male by picking him up with your hand basically around him under his "armpits" (head up), let his butt end dangle. That should drop everything he has back into visible position. I check all potential male breeders this way - I don't waste my female time on males that don't have what it takes LOL.

Female rats can turn on a male sometimes. As Bruce said I had a male rat darn near ripped to pieces last year by an aggressive female. They'd both bred before but for some reason she went looney tunes on him that time around. He survived - she became boa food (I don't keep nasty or unstable tempered rats).