Male or female?

Question
What is the difference in temperament and do the female males mark just as the males? Do females have a heat cycle that makes them crabby? and do they have a period? Just wondering.
Thanks
V

Answer
Hi

Alot of people misunderstand marking. When a rat leaves a urine trail, this is part of the wild rats trait. In the wild, rats travel in the dark at night, often in burrows underground. To avoid losing their way, they leave a trail of urine so they can follow it back to their nest again.  A new rat will leave a urine mark more than a rat you have had, say, for a year or so.  However, if you put the older rat in new surroundings, they may resort back to urine marking since they are unsure of where they are.  Also, males mark with urine to show ownership in some cases and its best to think of it as a compliment when your rat marks you since this means you belong to him. Some females will also mark, but they leave urine trails more than they mark certain objects. Some rats just urinate due to being nervous. Same for popping. A scared rat will have loose stools right on the spot. This just shows they are fearful of something. New rats may do this too but will stop as they begin to trust their owner.  Nothing a pack of unscented baby wipes cant resolve!  

As for the temperament, males are usually more docile than females, but this is ONLY after they are adults. When they are younger, usually under 6 months of age, they are all the same. Active, curious, always exploring and climbing, no matter what gender they are.  As they age, some say the males are more apt to sit on the owners lap, even sleep on their chest, while the female just keeps busy but will tolerate handling and petting etc...  If the rats are not socialized at birth, they will be shy and require extensive trust training when adopted which is why its good when you find a good rat breeder that knows to handle the pups from the day they are born.

As for females being in heat, they are in heat every 5 days. This is such a short period of time, the uterus has no time to develop a lining to shed during menses, which means that there is NOTHING that comes out during heat such as blood or any discharge at all.  Many people make this mistake when they see bloody discharge, thinking the female is supposed to bleed during heat, and instead, it is from infection or even a uterine tumor which needs prompt attention.  
So in other words, there should never be any bleeding from the rats vagina at all.   As for being crabby, they are in heat about 12 hours and usually there are no real changes in behavior other than maybe a bit more cuddly, sometimes displaying a very peculiar display of mating by vibrating their ears!  I have NEVER seen this myself with my girls, but female rats have been known to vibrate or flutter their ears back and forth during heat. This is a mating call and is compared to a human female batting their eyelashes at a male, in other words, flirting. Also if you stroke the females back, she may raise her rump in the air too. This also may indicate she is in heat.
Females can become pregnant as young as 5 to 6 weeks of age and males are fertile about the same age, maybe a bit younger.  

My advice to you is if you buy females, you should strongly consider spaying them to prevent mammary tumors. They should be spayed at 3 to 5 months old to prevent growth of mammary tumors that usually start to show after menopause, around 18 months, but sometimes its earlier.  Estrogen levels that are high after estrus cycle ends can cause the growth of these tumors and although they can be removed, some rats start to grow them left and right and after they are removed, some new ones pop out even before the stitches are out of the other ones that were removed, which is just devastating to the rat owner. Chances of mammary tumors growing after a spay at the right age are very low and even if they do grown one, they usually just have that one and dont grow more.  Males may even develop them like human males can have breast cancer, but its not as common and they usually dont grow back like they do with females.

Only a qualified skilled surgeon should spay the rats and remove tumors.  If you need names of a good vet please let me know and I will ge happy to tell you.

You can read more about rats on my website, critter city.

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/index.htm