# How can you tell if your rat is the "alfa rat?"



## watry (Feb 14, 2013)

I'm kind of confused about looking at animals in terms of one being "alfa" or the other being "submissive." I train dogs and, from lots of research, I have come to the conclusion that those terms are inaccurate ways to describe dog behavior because they don't strive to "move up in ranks," but their behavior is a result of what they have been taught (so a dog that jumps, pulls, and door dashes isn't being dominant but they have been taught that those things are ok things to do). I don't need to get into it on a rat forum, but I just mention this because I am not sure how one would tell if a rat is alfa or not? When I hear those terms I honestly cringe a little inside because of the people that I have worked with that have mistreated their dogs because of that mentality. 

I used to have rats when I was in middle school (I was kind of a "crazy rat lady" and I would sometimes have up to 24 rats at a time... but I didn't have friends so they were well cared for since I didn't do anything else with my life) and now I am in college (I commute and I have no rats now ) and I will be taking in some lab rats from one of my classes. I found homes for the rest of them, but since I have breeding experience I will be breeding the lab rats and hand raising them for the next class since my professor doesn't like ordering them.

So I will be starting with a pair of males and females, but I would like to gain a different perspective on how you guys would tell if one is "alfa" or not? When I had rats as a youngster, I never noticed this at all because all of my rats got along and they were all very easy for me to handle. 

Oh and the rats were all used in humane experiments by the way so no drugs or anything like that, just them pressing levers and getting tasty treats essentially


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## Flora (Aug 30, 2012)

You can tell who is "alfa" as soon as they interact with each other. Rats will also do the same thing as a submissive and roll on their back. If you have two "alfas" they will start to push each other and box (front paws) and kick (back paws) It will be pretty obvious. 

SN: We are not suppose to discuss breeding on this forum.


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## JudeWriley (Aug 1, 2007)

Rats and dogs are different animals. So while dogs may not have this particular social structure, rats _do_. (And no offense, but the term is "alpha.") Also, just because we use the terms alpha, beta, omega, etc doesn't mean that rats are trying to "move up" actively. The alpha rat is just the rat that keeps everyone happy and well-behaved within the boundaries of the rat community. Ideally, your rats need to see _you_ as the alpha.

http://ratshackforum.com/ratroom/health/hierarchy-within-a-colony/ Is a good place to start learning the different behaviors between alphas and betas. There are also a few good posts around here that go into some detail, but I can't seem to find them right now.


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## watry (Feb 14, 2013)

Oops, sorry this was my first post here so I wasn't aware that talking about breeding wasn't allowed.

And that makes sense. The term has been skewed in the dog world and it has caused some people to be violent to their dogs...and so when I heard it I was like oh my gosh I need to know what they mean by this so I can form the difference between "alfa in the rat world" vs "alfa in the dog world." This forum seems fairly active so I would like to post more on here (but now I know that talking about breeding is inappropriate here).

The link helps make some sense, I will definitely try seeing my rats' behavior from this perspective. 

Should I treat the "alfa" rat differently than the other rat?


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## pocketmouse (Jun 13, 2012)

^ Nope, I don't think you have to treat the alpha rat any differently. Sometimes I'll take Yolandi (my alpha girl) out and give her a little one-on-one time but that's just because I think she get's annoyed with Natsu (the more submissive girl) on occasion, I mostly just hang out with the two of them together though. The only other thing I've started to do differently is giving Natsu her treats first to give her a head start, Yolandi has a tendency to scarf down her treat as quickly as possible & then she tries to steal Natsu's treat so she can eat that too, the lil bully.


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