Desexing Males

Question
I have a male rat, around 5mths old, he's becomming alittle amourous towards me (and frustratingingly enough towards my innocent clothing) and sometimes he gets quite aggressive. I know he's a good boy but alittle frustrated that I can't get him a small female friend(just not practicle at the moment). Do you know the down side to desexing? He's already alittle on the chubby side...
Anything that you can tell me would be more than helpful!
Thankyou ;o)

Answer
Hi Carly

I just love male rats for so many reasons, but because they do not hide their deep affection for you just captures my heart!  LOL!  

When a male marks his "turf" there are many reasons for doing it. One is the obvious, but other reasons ALL rats do it is linked back to the wild. Wild rats travel at night, often in tunnels under ground. Since rats cant see well anyhow, they depend on their whiskers to tell them if they have enough room to fit through the tunnels and they depend on their own scent to get them back to their nest again by following their urine trail.

Is he he biting at you?

Neutering males have no health benefits at all othter than the fact he wont get an abscess in his testicles which is not very common anyhow, but other than that, and the fact their fur will remain soft rather than it turn a bit more wirey and coarse, and they can be housed with females 3 weeks after they are neutered, they still may leave urine trails on you since it is natural instinct.  They may eventually stop doing it as much as they used to do it but it may not stop totally.

Also, they do chill out some, if not, alot. If they are super aggressive biters, they may not change right away, and dont expect them to just come running to you and hop on to your lap and start bruxing, either.  

The downside is the vet.  

You need a decent vet with experience that knows its not the same when you neuter a rat as it is when you neuter a dog or cat.  I lost a rat once because some arrogant Vet said she knew what   she was doing but instead my rat was bleeding to death over a three day period because she forgot to clamp off a major blood vessel in the groin area.

Since females are prone to mammary tumors, its best to spay them around 3 to 5 months old to prevent growth of these tumors later in life so if you wanted to have both male and female I would spay the girl since it has more health benefits.  If you plan on keeping the male only and adding another male to the colony I would neuter him so  he can be more open to new males in the future.