Help, my young rats are fighting at night

[dan2333]

They are about 3 months old and they are male.

At night, they fight but I'm not sure if it's play fighting. All I can hear is squeaking and wrestling noises. But when I go up to see what's going on, they just stop and look at me.

Is it normal for them to squabble like this at night?

 

[victoria]

Yeah, it sounds like they're just rough housing. If you ever see a big gash or that one rat is very frightened, then you may have reason to be concerned, but if not I would let them be. I let my guys out right before bed that way they are tuckered out and don't keep me up as I'm trying to fall asleep.

 

[jorats]

Yep, exactly what Victoria said.

 

[dan2333]

They still fight a lot. No serious injuries though.

Will this ever stop?

 

[jorats]

Can you give them a big out time at night before bed?
And how big is the cage?

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

Also age wise I have found that my males slow down around a year old so if you are looking for an immediate solution you could try some of the other suggestions.

 

[hopefloats]

our oldest boys are 5 months old. They do not rough house much anymore, on occasion but not often. Our babies are 10 weeks old and it sounds like an earthquake in the cage with them. Constantly all day and night long. all you hear is squeaking from both sides. It freaked me out so bad I would jump up and go running over there only to see the two babies running up and down the ramp.

They have not slowed down since we brought them home, they were about 5 weeks old when we got them.

 

[dan2333]

Can you give them a big out time at night before bed?
And how big is the cage?

I let them run around for about 2 hours when I can. The past two nights I have.

The cage is not that big. Maybe like 2 feet x 1 feet and 2 feet high (with two levels). I have a bigger cage. I'm going to transfer them soon.

 

[jorats]

Ya, get them in a bigger cage asap. That might help a lot.

 

[Moon]

Transfer them soon but you can still expect lots of activity right around bed time because of their age.

 

[Joanne]

Would neutering help?

 

[jorats]

Would neutering help?

Neutering might help, but the size of that cage is super small, it would be like putting two people in a closet. I would wait it out, give them a nice big cage and see how that goes.

 

[dan2333]

I let them run around in my room today for 6 hours. I rat proofed my room a bit, vacuumed and cleaned the air with my air purifier. They really like it a lot and they are pretty well behaved.

They are still not fully grown. I know the cage is small but they are probably only about 2/3 of an adult size rat.

I will put them in the bigger cage this week.

I want to make them a cage that's not boring. I've seen on this website a cage that is not so boring: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pkmousie/2292067388/

That will give me some ideas.

 

[jorats]

Oh ya, that's a fun cage!