older rat and younger rat...

Question
hello ive not long just spoke to one of the other experts that recommened i spoke with you, as you may have a better answer,ok here it goes.. ive several rats ive owned rats for over 10 years and love them, now my husband loves them too, we have 10 of them, we brought two dumbo  1 huskey looking and one siemese both were 7 weeks old when we got them from the pet store, to my surprise the husksy female was pregnant i could see them moving in her belly as she lay on her back and the next eve she gave birth to 8 but one we think fell away from the warmth and passed away so we removed it when she wasent looking,, she's been a excellent mother and later we put her sister back in with her and she has been helping look after them, the rat pups now over a month old were sexed and seperated to avoid pregnancy, but one of the baby males had a fit and we put him in with his auntie and just one of his brothers to see if he perked up i hand feed him and he ate , he looked like he could have pulled through as he begain eating solids but during the night i think he may have died sad thing was my husband came and got me that morning and said the baby had died and its stumach had been eaten away, i spoke to another expert who said dont worry that can happen all my rats are clean and feed well ,and loved we havent any agressive ones ,anyway ive got homesfor some of the boys and theres one baby boy rat left because i didnt want him on his own we put our just over 5 month old blues with him in a large leveled cage and one of the adults has become abit of a father figure to him but,, he wont let the baby go anywhere out of his vision, he cleans him and they sleep together but when he gets outside and sits ontop of the cage he grabs him and takes him back to the bottom of the cage, now the baby doesnt seem to impressed by this being just over a month old he wants to play and run around... want i wanted to know is because im paranoid due to one haven already been eaten because he was sick etc,, im worried this one might do too or is it just because my older one just wants to take care of his whereabouts is it normal for a male to do this,,,can you bare in mind the adult male thats with the baby rat isnt the one that ate the insides. i believe she did that due to protecting the nest etc,,but my male adult blue is  picking up the baby and moving him all the time,, could he hurt the little one, i have watched them and he has shown no agresstion towards him just seems over protecting of him and doesnt want him to go outside the cage,,what should i do move him to be by himself or let the 3 boys grow up together? awaiting your reply with thanks sorry for it being long winded..lisa

Answer
I wouldn't worry. Most likely the one baby who was mutilated, it happened after he died of natural causes; not before. So this baby I think is fine -- he has a buddy and his buddy happens to be pretty protective. That's a good thing. I'd let them live together and consider yourself lucky to have boys that get along so well! It's totally normal and a very healthy older male-younger male relationship.

Best of luck!