# Spayed females and intact male?



## riotfox (Apr 16, 2010)

hi guys, i have three female rats, all of whom are now spayed due to tumours. my brother has a male rat, werewolf, who lives all by himself in two connected mouse cages, which imo is a too small setup. my girls also live in two connected cages as well, but bigger ones, with 8.15 sq ft of space all up, so it could fit one more. 

i was thinking of asking my brother if he would like werewolf to move in with my girls, as long as they got along. it would be great for him to get out of his lonely, sawdust filled cage and into a larger cage with toys and friends. 

i was wondering if anyone has any experience with how intact males will act around spayed females in general? and any thoughts or advice?


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## Kinsey (Jun 14, 2009)

I have two intact males and one spayed lady who live together. One male is, although respectful, otherwise unbothered by her and plays with and grooms her. The other, a two year old named Romeo, grooms her obsessivly and mounts her. She takes care of herself pretty well, the boys both love her.

I think your boy would think he'd died and gone to heaven, and that it would probably work just fine to introduce them.

Also..sawdust is awful bedding.


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## riotfox (Apr 16, 2010)

thanks for the reply! im glad you think it would be good. im going to be really careful with the introductions though, he does sort of live up to his name (werewolf) in more ways than his colour somwtimes. and thank you for the advice that sawdust is not good bedding, my brother is aware and i have suggested newspaper before, which is what i use, but he insists on using the sawdust for werewolf


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

saw may as well be pine it's so bad ugh.

And yes spayed females and intact males are a great match. I have a spayed girly with an intact male and I did not even ned to do intros it was so perfect lol.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

cedar sawdust is WORSE than pine... toxic stuff to humans too. :-[


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## Kinsey (Jun 14, 2009)

I didn't have to do any introductions with my group, either. Even my agressive guy loved her once he was done jumping on her and power grooming her. My gentle old man offered her a lab block and then humped her. lol.

She keeps them in line! When I first put them together, she would open her mouth and show her teeth and both males would back right up.


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## ratfan06 (Dec 31, 2010)

All my girls are spayed and my boys are all intact. They all live together in one large cage and do well. I'm sure you won't have any problems.


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## riotfox (Apr 16, 2010)

thanks for the replies! hopefully it works out well . now fingers crossed my brother agrees to this, for werewolfs sake


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## Monroe (Mar 26, 2011)

I'm sure the introductions will go well. I don't have any females yet myself, but I heard introducing females & males are supposed to be the easiest intros. ;D

Make sure you convince your brother! Poor Werewolf shouldn't be alone, lonely rats get depressed & die sooner.


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## riotfox (Apr 16, 2010)

i sure hope he agrees easily, i fear my personality might stop him wanting to share responsibilities with me (because if they are sharing the cage we have to work out some system to share cleaning and feeding responsibilities. missy is getting over an infection so im waiting for now.


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## riotfox (Apr 16, 2010)

yay, he did agree! without hesitation. im not so sure he likes the idea of changing litter boxes daily and cleaning up pee and poo throughout the day but in the end he will actually have a heck of a lot less work cuz ill be doing the majority of the major cleaning and even the litter boxes (since i have the majority of the mess makers it seems fair). an of course ill be helping with food and water about equally.


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