[Spider]

Sometimes I wonder if its healthy keeping the Male's seperate their whole lives. Rats must be highly sexual in the wild, and to just keep the sexes apart and never allow them to mate, develope relationships with their opposites seems strange.
What kind of relationship developes with an intact male and a spayed female? do they have sex? can they without the female in heat?
What about an neutered male and a spayed female? do they see each other as something beyond just two Rats? do they bond deeper than two males?
Sometimes it just seems weird that they are celebate.
I see the Rats life as a very, very pampered prisoner. I give them everything I can think of to make them happy, but can't help thinking what they really want is to meet that other 'half' and go about the business of keeping house.
Spider

 

[Forensic]

My rats are supposed to be celibate? I should tell them to stop humping each other, brb.

 

[ladylady]

I wonder this too, I imagein they can masturbate if they want to but do they suffer from the lack of emotional tie between lovers?
Do they "mate" with their same sex cage mates and become ****/bi to compensate for the lack of the opposite sex?
What happens between mixed sex groups in various states of snips?
Can a single male provide whats needed to say 3 girls or vice versa?

 

[lilspaz68]

Its a hormonal drive to procreate not a mental desire like a human. If you have seen an in heat female with a group of males, she's running and its like a gang-rape.
Rats do masturbate so they are not unsexual. A female in heat is more likely to get "aid" from her sisters than a neutered male but it happens too.

They don't have memories like us and think longingly "of the days" LOL...

I would think as domestic animals they do just fine.

 

[ladylady]

So are you saying the natural order of gang bangs isnt necessarily good.
And that they are satisfied but the company they keep?

 

[Poppyseed]

I think my rats are just fine. My males seem to take their urges out on each other >_> And they have same sex friends to sleep with and groom which is a very deep relationship in my eyes. Don't see why they sexes have to differ to see their lives as fulfilled. My gay rats are happy and healthy.

I think you are anthropomorphizing too much honestly. Your rats are fine, they don't need to knock someone up to feel happy, it's hormonal. They don't get the same adrenaline rush and please humans do from sex, it only last like a second lol. It's more hormonal drive than anything else. I think they experience love more from the same sex in that they aren't required to mate to receive love, attention and grooming.

And in the wild, females can run away from groups of males and groups of males are usually smaller. So yeah it's not a natural order to have a 'gang bang' in rats

 

[ladylady]

Err for anyone else who is as silly as me, here's the difinition :lol:
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of uniquely human characteristics and qualities to nonhuman beings, inanimate objects, or natural or supernatural phenomena. Animals, forces of nature, and unseen or unknown sources of chance are frequent subjects of anthropomorphosis. The term is derived from two Greek words, ἄνθρωπος (anthrōpos), meaning human, and μορφή (morphē), meaning shape or form. The suffix '-ism' originates from the morpheme -ισμός or -ισμα in the Greek language.


I think the point that the sex is so short and the fact they sleep and groom, play ect, I feel pretty sure my girls arent lacking much

 

[Spider]

Do Rats create Male/Female relationships the way say Parrots do? Do they form a couple till death? or do they just get together to Mate?
Is there any advantage for a Neutered Male to be with a Female over being with a cage Buddy.
I'm trying to understand how they feel, and what I can do to make their life more comfortable.
Example; say in this cage are two neutered Males, they're best buddies, sleep together etc. Then I introduce two Spayed Females, how would this effect the nature of things? would the two Males become attached to a female each? spend their time together? sleep together? or would it go on as befores?
Are the Male Rats finding comfort in each other because thats all there is? but given the chance would they perfer a Female?
Spider

 

[Forensic]

I doubt rats form male/female relationships. Parrots have partners for life. Rats are distinctly polygamous on both sides. There's no pleasure in sex for them, or neutered males would still have at females and spayed females would still be attractive to males. Some rats become 'bonded' meaning they're best buds and would miss each other if separated, but gender doesn't really matter.

There's no real advantage to a male/female pair, except that the female gets a fluffier pillow and intros would be easier.

Introing two spayed females to two neutered males would be just like adding two more males. They may sleep with their new friends from time to time, why not? But that doesn't mean they've paired up with the females or anything like that.

Rats don't have life partners. There's no reason to, the way they live.

 

[Spider]

Very interesting. As Rats are highly intelligent I guess they're much above all the ridiculous nonsense that Humans find themselves caught up in.
Spider

 

[Forensic]

It's not as much intelligence as biology.

Humans are best served with the females be monogamous, with a male tied to them to support them. Males are technically best served being polygamous but monogamy works okay.

Rats aren't served by monogamy.

Heck, it's probably in the females' best interest to be celibate, if it weren't for the whole 'procreation' thing.

 

[Poppyseed]

It's up to debate as to whether humans are naturally monogomous or if that's part of society telling us we are.

 

[Forensic]

True....

I tend to lean towards the opinion that it's best for the females to stay with one male (unless something better shows up) and best for the males to spread about.

Sort of like blackbirds and such.

 

[OnlyOno]

males spread their seed whereever and whenever possible (when we haven't snipped their seeds, lol) which is why they have such huge testicles to begin with. field mice are even worse in comparison, and many males die during the time when all the females come into heat at the same time (i'm not sure if this is a species thing or a it's-breeding-season-and-we-have-seasons-because-we-are-not-domesticated thing) cuz they spend so much time trying to mount every female. swamp the field with their genes, so to speak. so i would say that no, rats don't actually form "relationships" with their mates, they just mate because the opposite sex is handy nearby. in the wild, rats kinda just lump together, males and females and whatever, and males mount any female that stays still long enough..

on that note, molly and guppy males (fish, fyi) need 3-4 females each. i had one molly male with one molly female and he chased her all day long and she finally died cuz she didn't have enough time to eat or sleep. again, no life-partners there, lol.