I have 3 rats that I hand raised from large pinky/small fuzzy size (long story). Unfortunately, they all turned out to be females. I was hoping one would turn out to be male so I could produce some feeders for my ball python hatchlings. Since I didn't get any males, I held onto them anyway and they have been treated as pets until I could get a male to put with them. I procrastinated a bit because I had a lot going on but recently (over a year later) I had an opportunity to get a male about weaned size and I attempted to introduce him to my girls. They did NOT take well to him at ALL. I had to reach in and scoop him out or they surely would have killed him.

I was told that females are accepting of males but not to other females so I had someone double check and he was for sure a male. So what happened? Why were they so aggressive with him? Am I able to introduce any males or will they attack any males I put in with them now that they are older? Someone has told me maybe I should try with a fully grown adult male but I don't want to try it if another fight is going to break out. They are normally very sweet otherwise but when I put him in they were all over him and even attacking each other in the confusion. It was like total chaos! Any help is much appreciated. I'm sure someone on here can probably pinpoint my problem.