male rat humping

Question
I have a 6 month old male rat named Domino, who I've had for 2 months now. Within the past couple of days he has started to hump my hand occasionally. He doesn't do it all the time, and when he does, he'll hump a couple times and stop to lick his penis and do it again. Is this normal? Should I get something for him? I've had a pet male rat before, but he was older when I got him and never did this. Please let me know if you have any ideas of what could have triggered this, and/or how to remedy it. Thanks.

Answer
Hi Megan

Your little man is going through puberty!  They are sexually mature and capable of getting a female pregnant as young as 5 weeks old, but the actual puberty of a male rat, when testosterone levels rise, is between 6 and 8 months old.

This is totally normal for him to hump and in fact, he may try this on his cage mate who will NOT appreciate it and they may even scrap a bit.  Again, hormones going haywire for a while.
This is natural sexual dominance and you really cannot stop it unless you neuter him.  He will outgrow it (usually)
For now, all you can do when he does this is of course interrupt him from doing this to you. The other rats will take care of him their own way by pushing him off or like I said, scrapping a bit, shoving and pushing.  This is often when male rats tend to get into more serious fights and true aggression is displayed too especially if the rat is not bred for health and temperament, like most feeder rats and even some pet store rats are not bred for even temperament when they were meant for snake food before he ended up safely in your home.
Neutering is an option but I wouldn't suggest it for this reason since its normal and just shows he is a normal, healthy buck hitting puberty. Most males are only neutered for aggression issues (biting owner, causing serious fights with other rats and not being able to get along with other rats etc...) or health reasons like testicular abscess or tumors etc..  

Again, the only way to stop him is to just pick him up, rub his ears, get his mind on something else. He is trying to dominate you and he may even urinate on you which annoys many male rat owners.  I don't mind. I just keep a box of unscented baby wipes handy when I am with my rats. I own 6 males, only 2 are neutered for serious aggression and so the other 4 love to have contests (I swear!!) to see who can leave their "mark" on me the most!!  

Hope this helped shed some light for you as to what is going on with your buck. At least you know he is healthy and doing what he should be doing, annoying as it is!


Regards

Sandy

Ps- Sorry if this took long to answer. It was floating in limbo unanswered since it was not addressed to anyone specific and I saw it and answered it today. Not sure when you made the post but I know sometimes they can take a few extra days to be answered if they are not addressed to someone specific.