Rat Breeding Problem

Hi everyone. I had a problem with my rats that I am trying to breed latley. It seems that one of my females has taken a chunk of hair and skin out of the side of my male rat. What should I do? I have already separated them and they were only together for 2 days. Should I put them back together or should I try another male? They are about the same size. What I am thinking is is that they were fighting for this hide that I keep in the middle of the tub. Should I take the hide out? Thanks for the help.

My bad. They were together for exactly 5 days. Could the male have done his job with both of the females in that time?

he probably did his job-you may want to try a new male if they can't get along. I run 1:3 and leave them as groups, i don't seem to have any problems with aggression and I never separate them.

Remove the hide, make sure whatever your using is an appropriate size and they always have access to food and water. Hes probably Done his "job" they breed fairly quickly. If the problem persists you could try another set sometimes you can just end up with an evil rat, hell ive had a few :-p

best to get rid of any mean ones!

Yeah thats what I thought but I am not sure which the mean one is because I have 2.

I've always had the best success raising them together after weaning and not separating until they are euthanized at about 12-14 months of age.

Youll periodically end up with an evil rat, quickest to get fed off :-p of course the meanest two i had i kept for a couple years, she dropped huge litters always 20+! She would always go out of the way to try to bite me, succeeded a few times. She recently passed though :(she was in my sons science class maze experiment.

So I kept the male with the females for only 6 days. Do you think that that is enough time to fertilize the females?

Most likely, doesnt take long