Question
I have a 6 month old rat and i had recently romoved him from the female becasue she was going to have babies. After i did that he started chwing and scatching himself raw. I took him to the vet and they said that they could see nothing worng with him.
He is my bast rat and my kids adore him. Could it be that seperating him from the feamle has made him do this? If so should i get another rat or can i wait until her babies are ready.
My Male Rat is Chewing himself really Bad [Solution]
I understand that rats make excellent fathers and if separated from their family can get very distressed,hence your new “dad” pulling at his fur. Don’t get another rat as this will stress him out even more.
If you are intending to breed, just leave him and the female together to raise the babies. Make sure that you have three cages, one for the parents, one for female babies and one for male babies.
This will prevent inter-breeding and overcrowding, the main cause of aggression in rats. Be sure to separate the babies into single sex groups no later than 5 weeks of age or they will reproduce themselves with their littermates, an awful but unfortunately all too common occurence.
If you don’t want anymore babies, think about having one of your rats spayed. That way they can still live together without the stress and potentially fatal consequences of trying to introduce a newcomer.
Also, having done a animal care course i have i little knowledge in this area and all i offer is advice as i am not an expert. this could be what is called re-directed behaviour when an animal grroms itself to the point of harming its self it may be pining and at this point you need to see if it is happy, eating and drinking well and also using its environment. you could try to give him hings to play with old boxes socks tubes. another thing you could try is to keep him near to the female so he can see and smeel her this would give him a sence of company.
