Males fighting

[1095732]

I have 3 males who are around 6 months old. They are brothers. About a month ago they started fighting really bad. They would be a lot of "screaming" that was very loud and scary. Never any blood. That has stopped but they are still fighting every few days. It's not as bad as before. But there will be some loud squeaking and they will be standing up like bears at each other. What should I do about this? Will it stop since it's slowly be slowing down, maybe they are growing out of it? When they fight should I break them up (I got bit last time I tried), clapping or saying stop doesn't do anything.

 

[Lucky4LeafClover]

With my five boys I always go by the statement " no blood no foul" my boys box each other too. Two had to be neutered because things escalated and blood was drawn, lots of puffing up, humping etc... all siblings squabble once in a while.

 

[dspch911]

Hormones!! I have 13 boys and some had to be neutered. I also had a group of three, but had to take one out do to the "no blood/no foul" rule he keep getting large lacerations from bites. They are probably working out the pecking order and who will be the alpha rat. Don't break them up with your bare hands use a towel or oven mitt to distract them - don't bang on the cage either. If it gets bad enough and you have one that is definitely a brat you can try the time out cage. Take that one and put him in a cage for ONLY 10 minutes, but make sure the cage (travel size) has nothing in it so its not fun for him.

 

[1095732]

So far there hasn't been any blood so I guess it's not that bad. But the screaming noise that one of them makes sometimes freaks me out. It's LOUD. It's woken me up a couple times and I wake up yelling stop and jumping out of bed really quick because it sounds like someone is killing the other one. I watch them and they still all hang out together, no one is excluded. They play together and groom each other. They usually sleep in different parts of the cage and when one goes into the others 'section' that's usually when the bickering happens. I've been trying to cater the cage to what they like. Simon has his hammock or basket, Basil has his tree trunk house and Dale likes to sleep on the top section under the newspaper. As long as they stay in 'their spot' for sleeping everything is fine. During the day when they are awake there are no fights. Should I put more places to sleep/hide? Or would that just cause more problems as they try and claim that spot as their own?

 

[vombaty]

Females fight
[BBvideo 450,375:15kbj28c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggyyfu-lZBU[/BBvideo:15kbj28c]

 

[jorats]

It's very normal for males to continue to scuffles and work out who's alpha. It's the same in females too. You could neuter the bully but if you are not seeing cuts, gashes or bites, then I wouldn't worry about it. As they age, they should settle down.