# Dominant/ Alpha rat problems



## Lerxst (May 7, 2007)

So recently I was in a pet store and saw a poor nearly adult rat alone in one of their cages. One of the employees there said he'd been there a long time. I picked him up and he seemed quite nice and he was more than deserving of a good home. I have 2 adult rats and 2 "teenager" rats who all live together quite contently. When it came time to introduce the new guy(who is barely smaller than the adult rats) he got along perfectly with all but one rat. 

The largest of the 2 adults, named Robot, is the Alpha rat and he gets into harmless little scuffs with all my rats to show them hes the biggest and toughest of them. Hes never done any harm to the rats, but I introduced him to the new guy last because i figured he'd try and pin him down and show him hes the boss. (Ill refer to the new rat as Ler from now on to avoid further confusion) 
When Ler and Robot were allowed to smell each other for the first time(and all subsequent times) Ler took a very defensive stance and opened his mouth with teeth exposed and began to scream at robot before they had made any contact. The screams were short bursts, but consistent. Robot was not coming at him with any harmful intent ( besides maybe a little wrestling) but Ler seems deathly afraid of him. Ive tried introducing them on neutral ground with vanilla extract masking each of their scents but it was much the same effect. After ler screams, if robot continues forward, ler will flip out wildly and engage robot(I guess) at which point i separate them.

Are they incompatible? Any suggestions? any help would be much appriceated.


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## Stephanie (Mar 25, 2007)

well intro's are tricky the best thing that ever worked for me was smearing baby food all over the rats, putting the in the tub and letting them groom each other. Now in my case i had to do it in the cage cause that is where the problem was BUT i would do it in the tub twice a day untill all seems fine. then start on the intros in the cage and do the same thing. I hope it works for you!


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## DarkDesires814 (Apr 8, 2007)

If they do this every time you try to introduce them you can try putting their seperate cages near each other so they can get used to each others scents. Or letting the new boy sleep with a towel and then putting it in the other cage. After a few weeks try another introduction with them. I'm not sure how well it will work but it's worth a try.


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## Poppyseed (Feb 1, 2007)

Yeah, I would give it a break for a couple of days and try the things listed here. I too have a scardy rat but he didn't attack the others, he just stayed clear and eventually became unafraid of them.


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## Lerxst (May 7, 2007)

Thanks for the suggestings, but unfortunately Robot is just too much of a jerk to let him into their group. And because of his incompatibility with Ler ive caged him and another of the rats separately until i figure out a solution.
It seems that since the Ler has been here, Robot has been more aggressive to all the other rats as well, maybe due to his anger saved up for ler. Lately Robot has been dominating my "teenager" rats and after holding them on their back for a minute, he continues to fight them. The amount the loser squeaks has at least tripled. In short, because he isn't allowed to fight ler, hes getting much more aggressive against all the rats.

I was looking into neutering him, but I was wondering if it will even reduce his dominant behaviors, since hes all ready full grown. Id assume hes about 6-8 months old. Thanks


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## LizLovesRats5 (Mar 28, 2007)

Neutering will probably solve your problems, especially if you put all the rats together, including Ler, while Robot is at the vet, and then keep Robot in a seperate cage for a week or so until the neutering has a chance to lower his levels of testosterone. I personally have never done this, but I've read about numerous other people's problems being solved by neutering their alpha rat...

I only get boy rats now if they're already neutered to avoid these type of problems, and so that I can keep them with girl ratties.


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## Night (Feb 23, 2007)

I agree with Liz. I have 7 males in my big group of 11, and 6 of them are neutered (Mulligan's nearly 3 years old, so I can't neuter him). Neutering usually completely cuts out aggression, ESPECIALLY territorial issues.


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