New Member, Advice For Dealing With Difficult Introductions

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Joined
Nov 3, 2021
Messages
1
Location
Colorado
(there's a tldr at the bottom if you don't feel like reading the whole thing)

Hello! I have kept pet rats for years, and I currently have three adult male rats. I have dealt with several difficult introductions in the past, but this one takes the cake. I've had ten rats total over the last four years, and 38 through foster opportunities. I've done lots of research, but I'm still not sure what to do next.

Here's the situation:
Angus: 1.5 year old male rat, not super nice to his cage mates
McFergus: 1.5 year old male rat, was neutered two months ago to help with his aggressive behavior, and while it has made a difference, he still harms his cage mates
Archibald: 2 year old hairless male rat, absolute angel. He doesn't want much to do with my other two rats ever since his buddy, Quasi, passed six months ago

They are all living in separate cages right now. They previously shared a double CN, with two other rats who passed earlier this year. Once the mischief was down my current three, Angus and McFergus started to gang up on Archie. I separated Archie from the other two, and was planning on finding a different buddy for him, but it didn't work out so figured I'd try to re-introduce them all. Around this same time I realized that McFergus was being mean to Angus as well. And I don't just mean the usual play fighting.
I decided that getting McFergus neutered would be the best choice for now. While McFergus was recovering from surgery, I tried re-introducing Angus and Archie. Introductions didn't necessarily go badly, but since Archie is hairless it's very easy for him to get scratched up, even if Angus wasn't trying to hurt him. I decided that Angus was too rough to live with Archie. After McFergus had fully recovered, I waited a couple weeks as the vet advised for his aggressive behavior to subside. There has been significant improvement, but after a couple brief re-introductions, it's obvious that he is also too rough for Archie.
Archie was able to live with his old cage mates along with Angus and McFergus with no issue before, but for whatever reason, he would always get scratched up when it was just him, Angus, and McFergus.

I haven't re-intrduced Angus and McFergus yet, but I probably in the near future. I don't know what to do about Archie though. I'm not in a good place to get any more rats at the moment because I will moving in the next couple years that won't be very pet friendly. If any of my current rats live that long, it wouldn't be too difficult to keep one or two senior rats hidden for a few months. But any more than that would get complecated, especially if they'd still have lots of life left. It sounds bad, but that's just my situation as much as I hate it.

TL;DR: I have a rat that can't live with my other rats because he gets scratched up easily because he's hairless. I don't know what to do next.

Thank you in advance, and sorry for the long post.
 
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