# introducing young males to young males?



## ellismera (Oct 29, 2014)

Hi, I have two male rats at about 10 weeks old. They are in a savic royal suite. They look a bit lost and I was wondering whether it would be advisable to get two more rats to spend time with them in the cage. They are both unneutered, and the ones id introduce would prob be unneutered aswell. Ive read the sticky, but wanted to know the likely hood of them fighting and having to stay separate. Whether they are best as just a two, introducing more rats would help; and if so would same age or younger be better. Thanks


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## ahrat (Aug 12, 2013)

Being young, they would probably accept each other very well. The problem I could see is having 4 males going through puberty together. I had three at a time and it gets pretty wild! They work it out pretty fast though. It can just be surprising how much of a beating they can give each other. Generally, no blood, no foul, but you also learn when to break it up.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I second the easy intro, baby rats are often instant friends. In terms of longer term, there may be problems there may not be, its hard to tell. If you can get rats from a breeder who tends to have good strong alphas then you will probably be ok as they will keep the rest in check. Also i would say most males do get on fine, less the odd minor squabble, we just hear about the bad ones on here. I've had only males for quite a while now and only had 2 get so grumpy i ended up neutereing them.

I will say though i prefer mixed age groups, these tend to keep the group younger and more active, so if you could find a couple of middle aged rescues looking for a home it could be a really nice way to start a rolling gorup


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## ellismera (Oct 29, 2014)

Thanks for the advice. Its helpful. I had my eye on these two little guys.... Just didn't know whether it was the best idea or whether they'd be best as just staying as a two until I start needing to introduce others because of loneliness


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## new_rattie_mommy (Aug 24, 2014)

I agree that babies should be pretty easy to introduce. there's always a chance it could go bad because they say intact males to intact males are the hardest intro I believe (If i remember right from the sticky on intros) but babies are so innocent and loving I don't see it being a problem. they are still learning everything about the world so they don't have those massive egos yet lol. When I intro'd my baby who was 5 weeks I introduced her to adult males and they literally accepted her instantly. I couldn't believe my eyes. There was no dominance fights or anything because she was just an innocent little baby and my boys realized that and knew not to mess with her. Now that she is older they are working out their dominance issues that every pack has to go through but it is nothing major. She is 14 weeks old and I know that if I would've introduced her to another baby a month ago when she was your rats' age it wouldn't be a problem. Babies are kind of like human babies in my opinion. they have to learn everything just like we do. They don't come with those sassy, alpha egos right off the bat. My advice though would be to bring in boys that are 5 or 6 weeks old or at least anything up to the age of your 2 boys, not older. If you go older, I would be more worried about the intros than younger. That's just my opinion based on the experience I had with my rats. I am not an expert but I think there would be more threatening energy if u bring older ones into the mix and with younger ones they will probably be pretty innocent and just want to play with eachother. they will still have to work out they pack issues and establish an alpha at some point because every mischief does that. So you should still expect tackling and pinning and power grooming to happen and squeaking will happen also but as long as no actual fight or blood breaks out you are good to go. Let us know what you decide and keep up posted! It's so exciting to get a new rat! I wish I could get another but I have my hands full with 3...lol good luck!


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

intact male to intact male can be tricky, when your talking an adult male with a full suite of hormones (espeically if they are going through there grumpy teenage phase at the time, around 6-9 months useually), intact baby male to intact baby male is about as easy as rat intros get (same with doe kittens too). Actually the intro i find hardest isnt intact males, its adult does, they can go really easily, or they can go very badly if one doe takes a dislike to another. Most bucks can be turned around from grumpyness, even if neutering is needed, if a doe decides she doesnt like another rat it can be incredibly hard changing her mind. They are very opinionated rats lol.


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## Lita (Jul 10, 2014)

Girl/Girl intros are a headache with adult girls! x.x We have a pair of girls who are just so grumpy, they seem to take kindly to those who look like them, so they loved Ellie the black hooded, but Cricket the siamese they tolerate more then anything.

Can I ask, how young is safe to introduce baby males to young/baby males? I know I've seen some say 8 wks is a good age to introduce baby males to adult males, but if your resident males are 10 to 12wks, can you introduce a baby that is younger?


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## ellismera (Oct 29, 2014)

Hi Lita,

I read on one of the introductions thread (cant remember which one) your rats should be at least 10 weeks, as it is 8 weeks and then the period of two to three weeks, where they have to be separate (in another house) to stop them spreading viruses etc... so I would probably go by that advice. Hope this helps.


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