Castration?

[rats en folie]

I adopted a beautiful agouti blazed boy a few months back. He was about 5 months old. I introduced him to my group with a few fights but nothing major. But now he seems to be the dominant one and always picks fights with the other boys. He's about 10-11 months old and I was wondering if it would be better for me to get him fixed and introduce him with my group of girls? And would he just irritate the girls if I did that??

Thank you

 

[Ratlover2013]

Neutering is always a good idea. I think he would love lady friends or he could get neutered and go back with the guys.

 

[victoria]

Either way works out. I have had a single male live in a colony of females twice and it worked very well and I know a neutered male with other intact males can work well as well. Make sure you find a good rat vet to do the neuter and that you wait at least two weeks before you start introducing him to the girls so you don't risk pregnancy.

 

[jorats]

That sounds like a good idea. A neutered male with a harem, usually works great.

 

[lap rats]

Neutered should definitely help with his behaviour. I can't believe the difference sometimes! Just don't wait too much longer; the older the rat, the riskier surgery is. But he's still young and it should work out great!
He'd no doubt stop picking on the guys so much, or if you have the patience to introduce him to the girls, some people feel mixed groups add a good balance (one or both sexes being altered of course).
Also, i don't know how many girls you have or how old they are, but have you thought of also maybe getting them spayed? The health benefits are immense; they go from i think around 50% chance of mammary tumours to almost nothing! Then you could have one big happy rat group!! :dance:

 

[rats en folie]

I'll just have to find a great vet in my area. My vet is ok with rats but they're not the best....i'll have to shop around and go further out!

 

[Unepuce]

I don't know exactly where you live in your area, but if you can get to Montreal easily, I go to this place: http://www.birdandexoticvet.com/. They specialize in exotics, and I completely trust the 2 vets will see rats (the third one is very allergic to them). If you would rather not cross through downtown Montreal and would like to go south shore instead, this is another vet I truly trust (Victoria's vet, actually :cheeky: ) https://www.facebook.com/AnimoSante.

I do not believe there are any exotics vets in Lanaudière. I have met a lizard owner at my clinic that came all the way from Joliette for that reason. If there are some, I'd be curious to know, as my parents are in Joliette and I usually take my sick rats with me when I visit and stay overnight.

For my part, I only keep one colony. All my rats, males and females, are introduced and live in my DCN (granted, I never had over 8 rats at a time). I get ALL my males neutered upon adoption, and always have mellow, squishy, relaxed males that are very accepting of one another, and happy to live with my girls as well, spayed or intact. I even saw 2 love stories in my years on living with rats - Picolo and Chatouille would never be apart, and now, Jay and Émilie are glued to one another. :heart: I definitely vote for mixed colonies, so if you can, go for it! But I also found that genders like to hang out together as well, so I try to at least keep 2 of the same sex at a time.