Puberty in males

Question
Hi Sandra.  First off, thanks for all of the great information.  I adopted a one year old buck from a friend of a friend, and I have him in a ferret cage (here:  http://www.petco.com/Assets/product_images/0/045125602487C.jpg).  He's very happy because he's got so much room!  Anyways, I got him two babies (they're 5.5-6 weeks old at the time of writing) because I don't want him to be alone, and if he doesn't want to be bothered, they can play with each other.  Introductions of my big guy, Guinness, to the babies, Mac and Charlie, have been going perfectly so far.  I plan to move Mac and Charlie to Guinness's cage in the next couple weeks.  I'm wondering if there is any way to tell that Mac or Charlie will get too aggressive while going through/after puberty.  Mac and Charlie, whom are currently living together, play and wrestle, etc. normally, and Guinness has shown his dominant role during the introductions.  I'm just worried, despite not showing any current signs of aggression, that in a few months when Mac and Charlie start puberty that one might be aggressive.  Thank you in advance.

Answer
Hi Adam

Funny you should mention that!!  Right now, right this very second, I am struggling with three 8 month old bucks that are brothers mind you, and come from a very reputable breeder. Guess what? The little toads are going at it full throttle. I mean BIG TIME fighting to the point I now have their three story cage divided into three sections.  I feel so bad they literally cannot be near each other.  It just started out of the blue for no reason during play time one day about a week ago.  They were in their carrier that I use to transport them from their cage to their play area and they were all three fighting so  bad I had to literally dump the carrier straight up and shake it to get them out and they dumped out onto the bed, urine all over each other, fur standing straight up, hissing, growling....it was horrible!  Now, soon as they smell each other they start getting hyper!   I got a price to neuter them but I just moved to a new State (left NC and now live in lovely warm and sunny wonderful delicious southern Fl and yes we are in the 70s and 80s thank you very much! LOL!) so I do not know anything about the vets here that see rats and dont want just anyone neutering my beloved brats....errr....rats.  :0  

I think I will have to just wait it out and here is where the important info comes in at:

Male rats that are intact enter puberty between 6 and 8 months of age. Usually around 10 months or so things start to simmer down and the hormone levels drop.  Some rats never have problems, others may all be higher strung and need to be the alpha. This can happen regardless of how well they are bred. It isnt true aggression since they are not aggressive toward humans etc...although if your careless enough to reach in and try to break up a fight between angry rats, you will be bitten, although it wont be the fault of the rats, it would be your fault for thinking that they wont mistake your hand for another rat.  

Is there a way to prevent it?  Yes.....and no.  Again, my rats were very well bred and come from a very good line and rats and here we are....having problems!!!  Keeping them in a nice big cage with plenty of space of their own is a good way to go, and lots of play time to let them get their energy out is also the thing to do.  BUT...and theres that but again....it doesnt mean it wont happen because here we are....three well bred rats in a roomy cage and get plenty of play time out and eat the right foods etc...and so on and we are still looking at rat aggression due to puberty. Neutering will help, yes, as long as you have a very skilled vet that is very educated with operating on small mammals. It will take a few weeks for their hormone levels to simmer down so they can cool their jets, so to speak....  OR you can separate them like I am doing now and wait it out, allowing them to still see each other during their down time, which is usually during the day and early evening when they are still lazy due to being nocturnal.  They tend to tolerate each other more and I let them together during play time but am usually there to keep them from getting to close or they will mount each other, urinate on each other and do that infamous "sideways walk" which they look so funny doing it but mean business when they do it!

its good your older buck is not being too bossy with the babies. They are pretty young to be leaving them with him though so as your planning now, continue to wait a few more weeks yet before letting them move in with big brother. I would wait till they are closer to 12 weeks to be honest unless your sure the older rat is totally chill with them.