# Boy rats fighting- drawing blood



## rattylovebites (May 19, 2013)

The Alpha male in my group of boy rats has recently started fighting with my other male so extremely that he's getting bloody. My poor little guy got a hole in his cheek even! I separated them for a couple of days while the one rats wounds scabbed over and during that time I gave them lots of supervised play time so they wouldn't 'forget' each other. Last night I cleaned the cage and tried putting them back together. They were only together for a few hours before I noticed that my boy was all bloody again and I separated them again. The alpha is about a year old and the other about 8 months. I've heard that male rats around the one year mark tend to get more aggressive for a while. Any ideas how I might be able to calm this fighting?


----------



## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

Have they been neutered?


----------



## rattylovebites (May 19, 2013)

No, neither of them are. It's to my understanding that it's better to get them neutered at a younger age though. Isn't it too late?


----------



## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

Usually around 6 months to a year, I don't know if it is too late. But it sounds like a hormonal issue to me.


----------



## Patientzero (Jan 12, 2012)

The only way that the aggression will stop is from neutering or keeping the aggressive male seperated. He definitely sounds like he has hormonal aggression.


----------



## rattylovebites (May 19, 2013)

Okay thank you. I'll definitely look in to neutering more then.


----------

