# Male rats in the same cage.



## alan g a (Feb 23, 2011)

I have 2 male rats the terrarium. They get along just fine together. They never fight (apart from the occational play fight). Is this unusual. Has anyone kept males together successfully?


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## Argent (Oct 18, 2009)

Male rats are just as social as females. They're not like guinea pigs or mice .I have a group of four that have lived together from birth, before that had a group of five from two different places that lived happily together after careful introductions.

A terrarium is not suitable housing for rats, please consider getting as large a cage as you can afford.


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## thedogsmother (Aug 28, 2008)

I have 11 male rats together, they have the odd squabble but nothing serious and its all part of rat life, I have to say my 6 girls never even playfight but I have a much broader age range with the boys and they have some very strong personalities.


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## KalokiMallow (Mar 30, 2011)

Sorry to hijack, but we're looking at rescuing a second male rat (our current boy is about 2 years old, potential new boy is about the same age)

We've had no problems introducing girl rats, but have never been able to introduce boys before. Mainly as one of our last boy rats was really not the sociable type! Just wondered what advice you had for introducing boys? With the girls we put a tiny bit of vanilla essence on them all, so they all smelled similar, worth a try with boys? 

Unfortunately we only have room for 2 cages right now, one of which is full of girls. So if we can't socialise the boys, then we can't actually take on the second boy, and we know the rescue centre he's at really struggles to rehome rats.


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## Argent (Oct 18, 2009)

KalokiMallow said:


> Sorry to hijack, but we're looking at rescuing a second male rat (our current boy is about 2 years old, potential new boy is about the same age)
> 
> We've had no problems introducing girl rats, but have never been able to introduce boys before. Mainly as one of our last boy rats was really not the sociable type! Just wondered what advice you had for introducing boys? With the girls we put a tiny bit of vanilla essence on them all, so they all smelled similar, worth a try with boys?
> 
> Unfortunately we only have room for 2 cages right now, one of which is full of girls. So if we can't socialise the boys, then we can't actually take on the second boy, and we know the rescue centre he's at really struggles to rehome rats.


ASk if you can borrow a cage to keep him in while you do intros - with girls it usually is very easy, but with older boys, you have to take much slower steps. Keep them next to each other first, to get each other's smell. Then swap bedding for a few days, then swap cages. After doing that for about a week or so, you could introduce them on neutral ground, somewhere neither of them have been, like the bathtub, where they'll be too frightened of the tub to really notice each other.
After a few short meetings like this, start introducing a nice dish of food that they have to sit and share, like banana mash or baby food. This will help them bond a bit more.
If they can be around each other in the bathtub without properly fighting (pinning etc is allowed though) , then you can try free ranging them in your usual spot.
Keep the meetings short and sweet, only gradually lengthening the time they have to spend together. As long as there's no blood, they should be fine and just sorting themselves out with any squabbling.
Sometimes intros can take weeks, even months before two rats are safe to live together in the same cage. When the day finally comes, thoroughly clean the cage out and give them minimal toys/hiding places so the original resident has nothing to guard. Over the weeks, then gradually start putting the hides/houses and toys back in, and they should integrate just fine.

Also, if all else fails, neuter. One of both rats will help greatly - about 2-3 weeks after neuter, their hormones should have practically vanished.


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## Petitepuppet (May 30, 2009)

Always have male rats kept together. Rats are very social and need company of the same sex!


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## blade100 (Aug 24, 2009)

a tank????
oh dear,your rats will get respiratory infections if kept in these cages as the urine builds up and amonia can effect them badly.

plus rats love to climb and have hammocks and shelves hung up in the cage.

please read this

Fancy Rats | Information | A Home For Your Rats


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## manic rose (Mar 12, 2011)

keep my 3 males together and (like yours) apart from the occasional play fight and a bit of rough-looking grooming no fights between them. its so sweet to see them all playing together or curled up together in a ratty-heap asleep


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