Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is it OK to house adult male rats together in the same container? Would there be stress/combat between the animals?

Ben

It should be fine. People keep groups of same sex colonies (For pets).

Just make sure to keep them out of the room where the females are, or they will be able to smell them and they will fight.
As long as no blood is drawn it should be fine.
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1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 0.1 western hognose

>>Is it OK to house adult male rats together in the same container? Would there be stress/combat between the animals?
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>>Ben

Rats are generally cool with males together. When I want to give a group a break I take out my male(s) and house them together. Rarely you will get one aggressive male that is a bully. Most of the time they are just fine. It is also handy if you don't want to keep a male for each group to just shift one male around. It is also hand to control breeding times and genetics.
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Sonya

Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with the software.

I think it also depends on the males. My two big boys I picked up for my females lived their entire lives together and are quite mellow with eachother. Even when I put a female in with them, they didn't fight over her. They both chased her around but one didn't really put much effort into it. Eventualy I had enough females to put each male in with their own harem but I have never seen any fighting between my males yet. Right now one of the males is with two of his sons because the female he is with, has alot of trouble giving birth and I decided not to breed her anymore.

I've found several things about male rats. If they've been raised together with the females.. there doesn't seem to be any fighting that I've ever seen. However.. put another male in with a colony already going that is not from the colony and they tear into each other. Case in point. I had my founding male.. Morpheus.. in with a group of girls... I had to move my other male, Whisper in there for a little while so I could house a female seperate from the rest.. (lack of cages at the time) well Morpheus tore into Whisper something fierce. Morpheus was much older than Whisper so I elected to feed him off rather than deal with the fighting. However, neither Whisper nor Morpheus ever had a problem with their sons being left in the cages with them. Or even pups that weren't theirs being given to females and raised as if they came from the colony.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 het Blizzard (Lilith) and 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
5 Gerbils
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

Thank you all for your responses!!!

Ben