My male rats are fighting. Should I separate or neuter them?

Question

My 3 male pet rats are 9 weeks old but look like they keep fighting. One has a scratched eye, one has scabs in his skin and the other is fine. Should I separate them? What should I do? Pet's info: Small Animal | Rat | Male | unneutered

Miranda Sadar, DVM, DACZM · Accepted Answer

It is, unfortunately, very common for male rats to begin fighting as they get closer to sexual maturity. Your rats are getting to be that age, so that may be contributing to the scuffling that you are seeing. There are a few things that you can try - one is to completely separate them from one another. This can be complicated as you will need to have three separate enclosures. Sometimes there is only one aggressor - if you know that one of the rats is the bully (usually the one that has no injuries), you can also try to separate that one and leave the other two together. Unfortunately, sometimes this can then lead to the other two fighting (so it doesn't always work). Another alternative is to get them castrated. I am not sure what the comfort level of the veterinarians in your area is with rats, but this would remove the hormone component of things. I hope that gives you a place to start, and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

My male rats are fighting. Should I separate or neuter them?

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