Still aggressive after neuter

[Shelby Hogan]

Hi everyone. I have two male rats from the same litter, born 3.5 months ago. After a couple of weeks, one rat, RJ, started bullying the other, Snowy. RJ drew blood a few times so we separated them. It didn't help so we had RJ neutered. That was over 3 weeks ago. The first time we introduced them after about 2 weeks, RJ drew blood again. We separated for an additional week and few days until tonight. They did great, sleeping together, but then RJ drew blood again. I'm at a loss. Snowy is not afraid of RJ. They sleep and cuddle together. It's just that every once in a while RJ will go off fighting again and even though Snowy is completely submissive, RJ still bites hard enough to bleed. I'm so sad about this. Any ideas?

 

[SQ]

sometimes it can take as long as several months for hormones to drop

Can you describe what happens when he draws blood?
Time of day, what is going on when it happens, any particular part of the cage etc?
Also please see joinrats.com as they have videos etc of rat behaviour

can you post some videos? (post to youtube and then put the links on here)

also some pictures of the boys and their cage setup
Do you have intact female rats in your household?

 

[lilspaz68]

With a rat that has no hormonal issues, it can be super fast for them to settle, but a formerly aggressive male neutered can often take 8 or more weeks before they truly settle down and you can try introductions.