Separate, or return?

Question
QUESTION: I have four rats currently. A breeder came in from Ft. Worth to sell a litter of hairless dumbo rats at the pet store I frequent and I immediately fell in love and put the deposit down on a female to friend with the two I had at the time.
The owner of the pet store was not very experienced, and so she handed me a male without my knowledge. (I thought something was up, but I decided to hold him in a separate cage until he developed more.)
Turns out, my little girl is a little boy.

I was hoping to have had a little girl to add to the large cage, but now that I know he's not, I'm at a cross.
I'm not sure if I should take him back, or keep him alone in his baby cage.
I'm afraid that if I keep him alone, I'll have to buy him a friend and I've found that introducing males to eachother too late is slightly difficult.
I'm also afraid that maybe by the time I can afford to have him neutered, he'll have difficulty recouping and possibly get sick, or become aggressive when I introduced him to the females.


What's your opinion on this?

ANSWER: Hi Leanna

I would keep him and opt for a neuter. How old is he? I have had to actually neuter for aggression before (which I know is not the case with your little guy) and they were 5 months old and did great. I also had to neuter for a testicular tumor on a 2 year old PEW and he also recovered wonderfully. As long as you have a skilled surgeon that will neuter him and treat his pain post op, he should recover without incident. Since he doesn't have problems with aggression he should not become aggressive after neutering. More good news is, studies show that even aggressive males have been know to submit to females and it seems they leave aggression at the door when they dare enter a colony of females.
I would keep him separate from the girls but keep the cages next to each other so they know his smell and he knows their smell and this way, they wont seem like strangers when you do finally put them together.  
Another thing is, if you decide not to neuter, you can buy another male that is younger than he is. Usually the older male welcomes the younger buck and he knows he is alpha already.  However, I do agree that sometimes it is difficult to intro strange males and although I know many rat keepers that do it with ease, I am not comfortable with all the
rough housing they do at first. I have all male rats now,
(2 are neutered for aggression and the other 4 are intact) and in fact I don't own females right now (I just lost my beloved wild girl, Holly, who close to 4 years old) but when I do buy more girls, they will all be spayed at the same time to avoid problems with mammary tumors and vaginal bleeding, etc...)

How old are the rats, btw?

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

QUESTION: The male is about six weeks old now. Cute as a button. I wasn't too happy with him being taken away from his mother, because he still seemed to be cuddling up to her a lot, but they refused to keep him in there for me for another week.

Two of my girls are feeders, one I bought 'small' and another 'medium' so I'd say a four months. My dumbo girl is just a little younger, so maybe two or three months.

About how much did you pay to have your boys neutered? I'm considering travel to get it done, because the only doctor here that's experienced with rodents is trying to charge me $100+ plus office fees. It's more expensive than my large dog spay was.

Answer
I paid $200 for two rats to be neutered together PLUS one of them had two tumors on his chest that needed removed and they also stayed at the clinic for the entire week.

The reason the male was removed from mom is because he can get her pregnant at 5 weeks old and mother is fertile 24 hours after giving birth and every five days she goes into heat.

I can help you locate some good vets if you want.  I need to know your city and state and also what larger cites your near and how far you are willing to drive.  I drive about 45 minutes in heavy traffic for my vet but it does kind of stink when your rat is gasping for every breath, hanging on to dear life while your driving 85 mph and praying a NC State Trooper isn't out and about on the interstate!

I see no reason to neuter him esp if its that much money.  Heck you can buy a nice cage and save another baby male and provide him with a nice forever home for under $100 if you don't mind having two males.   Males are my favorite out of the sexes mainly because they become "ma ma's" boys as they age and  prefer to sleep on your lap for hours till you cant stand it any more...which rarely happens. I love the way they are so affectionate.  Don't get me wrong, I love girl rats...they are curious and nosey and busy and smart...but they don't like to cuddle till they are in their "golden years" so to speak. Totally independent!

Exotic vets often are a bit higher because for one thing, the anesthesia they use is expensive. Sevoflurane is very pricey but it is also very very safe. Once the rat is induced he is able to wake up much much easier than when using other gases which is why exotic vets use it on tiny animals. Before Sevoflurane, the risk of putting a small pocket pet under was much higher. This is one reason why surgery is more expensive. Also, the tiny tools and equipment needed for these small exotic animals are expensive.  Your paying for expensive implements and they are more pricey because they are not in high demand in the Vet world of medicine. What makes it worth it is you know that if your rat has complications, you can be sure they are monitoring him properly and have exactly what they need to handle an emergency situation, even blood transfusions, where a regular vet that doesn't keep small tools and such on hand cannot handle emergency situations, putting your rats life at risk.  You should see some of the fancy magnifying glass helmets that they use for surgery so the surgeon can see the smallest veins and arteries and itty bitty organs up close and can work on them easier when they are magnified a trabillion times (ok I made that word up...I do that too often I think and confuse people! LOL!!)

keep me posted as to what you want to do and I can do a search for a vet if you need one.


Sandy