Two males squabling

Question
QUESTION: Hi just was reading your fasinating website about Fudgey and her half wild babies!  I just bought two adult males from a breeder.  They lived peacefully in her colony.  First day or two they were great and sleeping together in their hammock.  Now, the larger black rat Ben, attacks the smaller brown rat, Socrates.  He terrorizes Socrates and makes him squeak and now will only live on one shelf of the large cage and not going down even for food and water = I have to feed and water him separately but even then, Ben comes up and grabs food out of his paws and eats it himself (so rude!)  
Should I take one back to the breeder and trade for another?  Should I neuter one?  I need help....
Thanks,
Vicki

ANSWER: I would neuter one rather than take him back. I just fear what may become of the other rat.  Before doing anything I would call and ask the breeder what happens if you return a rat for another, does she keep the rat or have it put down or use it for snake food? That always scares me.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks.  NO SNAKE FOOD!  She would never do that.  She will take them back.  She is a great breeder and rat lover.  She has already suggested a trade for the more aggressive one.  Although I already love Ben...
By the way, how did you catch Holly?  I have one wild rat who lives under the kitchen cupboards who I've been trying to catch in a Havahart cage for months but she is just too fast for it.  
Thanks again,
Vicki

Answer

wild girl Holly  
Thats good news that the breeder is a GOOD one.  I should not have judged so quickly but after being on here for a year or longer I have read so many horror stories I was too quick to assume the same here. I apologize.

As for Holly, my little love bug, I didnt have to capture her, she was already captured and was at the dog pound in rabies quarantine waiting to be euthanized.  I got wind of her existence through my daughters friend.  The friends sister was a school teacher and wanted a class pet so she went to a shady pet store that had a bad reputation for not caring for the pets they sell etc... Anyhow long story short, the school teacher bought a little brown rat she though was cool looking because it didn't look like the white rats. They were all feeders, btw. She took the little brown rat home and the rat kept attacking her and biting her and was fast and scared and just would not calm down. After being bitten hard enough to draw blood, the teacher went to the ER and the UNEDUCATED Doctor told her that the rat could be rabid and she needed to get rid of her at once. The rat was only about 10 weeks old at the time.  So she took it to the dog pound where they put her in quarantine.  Now when I heard this I about died.  For starters, how would a rat that was bred for snake food be RABID not to mention how would a rat, as small as they are even as adults, survive an attack from a rabid animal? The truth is, they wouldn't, which is why rats are not known to transmit rabies. they don't survive the attack due to their small size.
So I go to the dog pound to get her and have to convince the dog warden who had the intelligence of a pet rock, that no way is this tiny rat RABID!  I had no idea what she looked like or anything and when he finally agreed I could adopt her, he brought her out and I gasped when I saw a wild rat in the temporary cage.  I did not want to let it slip that this rat was indeed a wild rat *You can tell by their slanted eyes, longer snout, wider set larger ears etc..* plus she acted much more spooked than any domestic I have worked with, even super anti social ones.  I wanted the history on this rat and why on earth was she for sale in the feeder bin at the ma and pa pet store! I knew a few people that worked there so I called them and they told me something that shocked me:  Holly was part of a mischief of wild baby rats that some guy brought in after uncovering their nest in his garage. He didnt know what else to do with them so he brought them to the pet store where they were sold as feeders. It was and IS illegal to sell wild rats as feeders or pets etc... so I called the health department for starters and before you knew it, they closed the entire pet store down. I never let on that I had Holly or they would have wanted to release her into the wild so I hid her well.  Meanwhile, she was a monster and a half, biting me to death, scared to death, just totally wild little thing that was still scared of humans. She hated my domestics, even trying to swat the big 700 gram boys through the cage bars. She would walk sideways, bumping herself into the side of the other rats cages, making odd hissing  noises etc...  I spent a week of just her and I and some honey nut cheerios locked in the bathroom, I got her to trust me through reward trust training and she was one of the sweetest little rats I have ever had!!!!