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Raising Healthy, Friendly, Adorable Pet Rats

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Site Last Updated: 02/11/2024

TW: Culling and euthanasia

Well, things have been a little more eventful than usual. After being placed back with cagemates, the father of our current litter, Bert, showed clear signs of hormonal aggression. I’ve spent all week trying to organize my thoughts, and what I’ve got is still a jumble, but here goes:

What does that mean?

It’s not cut and dry, but usually hormonal aggression in male rats means an increase in antisocial and unnecessarily dominant behavior. This most often shows between 6 and 8 months, or after being bred. Sometimes it’s just poor behavior (puffing, bullying) and sometimes it’s dangerous (bites, all out fights, injuries and death).

What are you gonna do about it?

I haven’t had males with HA in the past, so now that I’m just about done crying, I’ve spoken with several more experienced breeders and come up with the below plan.

-Males with HA will be humanely euthanized. I cannot keep animals that will injure me or each other. If they were pets only, I would neuter and wait it out, but as a breeder that’s not in the cards.

-The litter on the ground will be held back until 12-16 weeks. I may keep all the males until 8-10 months, to see how they progress. The does will be bred to a non-HA male, and the process will repeat with those offspring until I can reasonably say those babies won’t have HA. This means there may be a pair of females available from this litter, but it’s unlikely I’ll have males available. If I do, they’ll need to go in pairs to a rat-savvy home with no other rats.

Why do these rats have HA if none of your other rats do?

There’s not a clear answer. It’s probably something that’s been lurking and has popped out with the linebreeding that I’ve been doing (concentrates traits). Although I’m glad I know it’s there, it’s also just terrible to know it’s there. It could be a fluke, or it could be the start of a trend, so we’re trying to be extra cautious and just nip it in the bud.

Why aren’t you placing these rats? Can’t they just be neutered?

It’s possible, but not preferable. And even if neutered, it’s not a sure fix. The same way I wouldn’t breed rats who got sick easily or had a high incidence of tumors, I wouldn’t breed rats with an increased risk of HA. Half of my adopters already have rats at home, and many of my adopters are children. HA is rat-specific, so this doesn’t translate to human aggression. However, it’s still aggression, and placing animals that might grow to injure a cagemate or an owner who tries to break up a fight is not acceptable.

Then when will you have babies available again?

All my rats are related somehow, so all rats are under scrutiny. It’s likely we will hold babies back until 12-16 weeks and then place in adult homes with no other rats and some experience.

Let me know as you have questions - always happy to answer them. Thanks for your patience as we work this out.