aggression

Question
QUESTION: Our male rat spike has gotten aggressive and his personality changed completely. He used to be in a cage with our other male spike we bred zeke with our female lily and his personality changed completly. Our lovey and socialable rat changed. He began fighting the other rats during play time which he never did before and he began biting (not nipping) us when we handle him. We don't let him play anymore during the same time as the others because he attacks them. Weve tried handleing him more and nothing has been working.

ANSWER:
This is why you should never breed a rat that you know nothing about.  He has aggression issues and now if he has gotten the female pregnant, her offspring may carry the genes as well, which is why breeding should be left to rat breeders that know about their history.

Also, how old is he?  ALot of times when males hit puberty, anywhere from 6 to 9 months of age, they go through a spurt where they are more aggressive.  How old is he now?  How often do you let him out to play and exercise and what type of diet is he on?


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QUESTION: We are breeders. zeke is a fourth generation of our rats and we have never had this problem with any of the rats from his line. He is 10 months old now. All our rats are let out for at least 4 hours a day at different periods throught out the day. His offspring never showed any signs of aggression. The place where we breed the rats for never told us any aggression or health issues with our rats. His food is the same as the other rats. Its a mix between the fortifed food and rat pellets. Three times a week they get small chunks of fruit which varies between grapes and apples.

ANSWER: I am glad you cleared that up for me, by disclosing you are a breeder.  You, as a breeder, know all too well how many people just buy a male and female from the pet store and put them together and come up with God only knows what with their off spring.  This is why so many rats are so sickly.   Anyhow, as far as aggression goes, it could be puberty issues and a bit more testosterone than normal, but it does indicate that he may be one rat that should not have reproduced so I would refrain from using him again to stud and if the female has any babies, they should be PET only, never bred, and keep an eye out for aggression.  You can separate him from the others, it wouldnt be a crime, and some rats really truly prefer to wing it solo. As for his biting people, of course I never suggest any form of physical discipline (tapping the nose, etc....some people are even odd enough to nip the rat back, which baffles me and only leads me to lean more to my strong belief that many people are simply lacking enough brain cells in their heads to be a pet owner of any kind!) I could go out on a limb here and suggest it be his diet, and suggest ditching the fortified diet (which I am going to assume it is a reggie rat type mix of seeds etc...) and suggest another type of diet once I am more clear on what his actual diet consists of since I am unsure of what you mean by fortified diet and what it actually is.  Also, does he attack the other rats while inside the cage?  I have a rat that gets really out of sorts during play time (they are four months old) but they are more super excited to be out running around playing in their rat room and eventually stop chasing and wrestling. I would be furious if it ended up this rat has aggression issues as I paid a good buck for the trio of boys from a very reputable breeder (drove three hours one way to pick them up)so I am hoping its just the fact that rats love to chase and play.  Oh, one more question....is the rat skittish, such as jumpy when he hears strange noises or shy with strange people etc...?

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QUESTION: The fortified diet is a mixture of seeds, grains, and fruits. With a small handfull of rat pellets daily for the vitamins and minerals they require. He doesn't bite my boyfriend very often but he absolutly hates me. I've tried letting him come to me on his own but he hisses and tries to bite at me every time I get to close. My boyfriend can still pick him up and hold him for a few min before he starts biting and going insane. We decided to not breed him after his first time. We kept a female from his litter and she acts the same as her mother. And loves neck and back scratches. Anyway my boyfriend and I have both come home and saw his feet were bloody. Our other older male is in the cage next to him and im thinking that that's why his feet are bloody. Our two younger boys are brothers and there extreamly calm and sweet. We only breed every other month and we alternate females between the two younger boys, we only breed our females 3 times then we retire them. Don't wanna over do it.  I wanna be able to keep zeke if I can get him to calm down alot. And he has never been skittish or jumpy he acts like a curious puppy. If I can't help him im gonna have to get rid of him to make room for my most recent litter of 15(2 days ago). Idk what to do with zeke. If there is anything I can do to help the process idc how long it takes he is my boyfriends big boy and ik he doesn't want to let him go. I just want him to go back to the sweet and loving boy he used to be. He would sit on our shoulders while we would cook supper, do dishes, watch tv, and when we walked our dogs. Any advice helps. Thank you

Answer
I would consider neutering him to be honest. I have seen a total change in personalities in every male that suffers from aggression issues. Of course if you have a money tree in your back yard (aside from mailing me some seeds so I can grow one too) and you can afford to experiment with your rat and your vet has a good deal of knowledge about rats and behavior issues due to hormone surges, you can try having him put on various medications used to lower testosterone such as a gonadotropin-releasing hormone. Estrogen can also be used but there are some side effects that are not in the best interest of the rat.  Diazepam (valium) which is a controlled substance, can also be used but I would really hate to see him respond well to it and have the vet stop using it long term. Rats do incrediably well on valium, believe it or not, and can handle doses almost the same mgs as humans take without being loopy or stoned.  I am not real huge on elective surgery, esp with a rat because of the lack of vets out there that I trust. There are too many vets that see rats but havent a clue about them and there are alot of people that are misled about their vets qualifications. Some people assume that when they read that their vet is a small animal specialist and list that they see "pocket pets" and exotics they think the vet automatically is an exotic certified vet, but small animal vet simply means they see dogs and cats rather than horses and cows. Nothing more. However, when you suggested re-homing the rat, that tore at my heart strings because getting rid of an aggressive rat only means he will end up being euthanize. If he doesnt do well for you I doubt he will for anyone.  I do know there are some rat rescues that accept biting rats and try to work with them but not sure if they are near you.  Honestly, getting rid of him would only confuse him and possibly make him worse.  If you could simply allow him to remain at your house and live solo, which is not a sin for rats that prefer to be alone, living in a nice two story cage in the corner of the room hopefully wouldnt be a problem for him. You can always love him from a distance.  I trained a biting rat who was actually a wild rat, but she was also 11 weeks old. I taught her that with each time she nipped me she would be put back in her cage but if she went for a certain length of time without showing aggression, she was given a treat and allowed to remain out for play time. In 7 days she made a total about face but I do think I was dealing more with a scared wild rat rather than one with too much testosterone running through her body.  SInce I have a limit to the amount of questions I answer here, please feel free to write to me at my personal email at Sandyscrittercity@yahoo.com or you can call me at 704 284 4853  (if your in the United States, that is)  It no longer says your location on the messages.