Aggressive male

[wolfy-hound]

I lost a breeder male and I put in a new young male rat. He immediately grabbed a pinkie up and mauled it. I removed him back to a bin without babies.

Now... is he aggressive and I need to feed him off? Was it because they weren't HIS pinkies? Was it because he's young(although he's well big enough to be a breeder, about 250 grams guessing)?

At this point, I'm planning on using him for a feeder rat. I have no desire to breed aggressive or "murderous" rats. Am I right in this? I've never dealt with a MALE killing babies. And he wasn't accidentally injuring one, he grabbed it and bit it repeatedly. Females that kill litters for no reason are fed off, but a male? Normal? Bizarre? Snake food?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[wilomn]

New Buck, new babies is my guess. Fill a snake belly.

[mastaxaph]

Throw him into a snake pit

[Rhasputin]

You added a new male, to a colony that already had new born pups in it. It's natural for the male to attack the pups. It's a user error, not the fault of the male. Take him out, let the litters wean, and add him back in.

[wolfy-hound]

So you don't think he will attack pups born later? He isn't attacking the young females he's in with(two females I got with him, they were all held together in the same bin so they're already bred by someone, possibly him, anyway.) but I don't want to invest the time of him breeding females if he's going to kill any babies when they're born.

I wasn't sure if it would be okay or not, but I've never had a male go after pinkies ever. It was bizarre!

[Rhasputin]

Just add him in after you take the weaners out. He shouldn't attack his own litters.

[JohnNJ]

Funny you bring this up. Checking racks this morning I find chewed babies in a tub with a male & 2 females. Going back after a few minutes I catch the male eating babies.

The one female is still giving birth and he is grabbing them a they come out. They are his babies and he has been with the females for months.

He was moved to the freezer and the female continued to have more babies.

I think you can see the difference between this and your situation.

[punyhuman07]

Yeah if there not his babies he will hurt or kill them. We alway remove the litters after there born so this doesn't happend or if we catch it fast enough just move the pregos out before they give birth. But it does happen. The male has most likly been by himself while growing to become a breeder and then shocked when you put him in with the girls and there babies. I personal wouldn't kill him off yet i would put him in with girls that have not been breed yet and start a new colony with just them alone and see what happens. after that if it causes an issue then I would put him down. He is the new guy on the block and doesn't want anything to get in his way (babies) while he is tring to breed the females.

[aldebono]

I don't have much experience with breeding yet, but I have had to shuffle babies around lately and never have the males had any problems with new babies that aren't his. I even have my huge original male in with his females and his adult breeding age son with no problems.

I plan on keeping hold back breeder males and females in with their parents for as long as possible. Rats are smart and social, they have to be able to learn parenting/social skills from their bin members.

[youbeyouibei]

I got my first litter last night but they were all dead and/or eaten when I found them. Not sure if the male did it or the female, as neither one of them were eating on the babies when they were in the tub. Anyway, I did some checking on rat infanticide and this popped up:

http://www.ratbehavior.org/infanticide.htm

It's kind of a lengthy article but it has some really interesting points about "conditioning" a male to not kill pups, regardless of if they're his or not. In the end it's ultimately up to you as to what you're willing to work with and how much time/energy you want to invest in keeping him. You can feed him off and problem solved, at least for that particular male or you could give him a chance and see if he changes his behaviors. Kind of like a female that eats her first litter: feed her off or chalk it up to inexperience and give her another try or two before you feed her off? Good luck, whatever you decide!