Infighting bullying (other options besides neutering?)

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Stormflyte

New Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2022
Messages
3
Location
Humboldt, California
Hi, I've been a rat owner for many years but have only owned girls. After my last two girls passed away, one in a traumatic (for me anyways) way I decided to get two boys from a reputable breeder. (I traveled 6hrs) Since up till now I only had feeder babies.
I got two super sweet boys (Koda and Kenai) but after two months I panicked because I found out boys usually do better in trios or quads. I ended up going out and buying two feeder babies (Dodger and OMalley) to add. I admit I should have only gotten one more since 3 rats seem to be the max and 4 Is a bit much for me to be able to give them true quality time.
So far I've noticed major differences between the boys in health, size, and nervousness but they are all so sweet.

My reason for coming on here is that with the two younger boys coming onto 6 months old soon there has been fighting that seems to be affecting the older boys in a negative way. They seem to both chase Kenai in particular (he has the makings to be a good alpha rat) Dodger and OMalley are over double the size of my other two boys so im worried it might go too far even if they dont mean it. I hate to say it but if it comes down to choosing, I'll have to choose Koda and Kenai because I've bonded with them more so then Dodger and O'Malley and they were the original two I went out to get.
Does anyone have any tips on how there can be peace between my boys? I've looked into neutering but the closest exotic vet is 7hours away and I just had my hours cut at my job and can't afford the 300 dollars for a single neuter now. They have plenty of space with their 6ft tall critter nation and daily free time. I don't want to give up Dodger or OMalley because I love them so much. But I also don't want my selfishness to hurt Koda and Kenai in the long run.
Please help
 
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