[new_rattie_mommy]

I knew that this might be a problem when I decided to add a girl to my 2 boys. My boys are fixed and my girls not. She has hit puberty now and keeps trying to mate with my boys. The boys will respond by chasing but then it turns into a fight cuz they dont get the whole mating thing lol then she starts nesting in my blankets and carpet and when I stop her from nesting she gets ticked off and bites my shirt lol shes a firecracker. Im sick of them fighting all the time cuz the boys dont know how to mate and evenmy boys fought over her once. Will she stop doing this when shes thru puberty or is this something that can only be solved by spaying her? Also I was curious if she might be smart enough to realize they aren't getting her pregnant she needs to find a new partner? Lol just a thought

 

[Velo]

Rats don't really go through "puberty" per say. They hit an age where they are old enough to reproduce and nature tells them to mate at certain times. Females who are old enough to mate will go through heat cycles every few days which indicates to males that they are ready to mate.
During a heat cycle, your girl will likely be somewhat hyper, etc. The males may get frustrated, fight, etc because of the heat cycle.
She won't stop going through heat cycles until she is at least 15-18 months old.
Spaying will stop the heat cycles and all of the other aspects that come with them.
Spaying is also extremely beneficial to rats and will reduce the chances of her getting mammary tumors and pituitary tumors exponentially. I would highly recommend spaying her. ^_^

 

[nanashi7]

The boys may just stop chasing her in a few months. My neutered boys figured it out after a while.

 

[new_rattie_mommy]

The boys arent chasing my girl anymore. They did when she was in heat at first but she was a baby and didnt like it so they stopped. She now is older and harasses them. Its her pproblem not the boys. And I know for a fact male rats do go thru puberty so maybe girls don't but I figured they do too where her hormones might be heightened for a while. I was wondering if the behavior would calm down in a few months perhaps when she gets used to her sexual maturity. I can't really afford spaying right now so its not an option at this point and shes still prettt young anyways so id wait a while.

 

[Isamurat]

girls tend to be just as manic when on heat later in life as when young. apart from there first heat at around 6 weeks which can take them by surprise. I'm afraid your sick with it for a good while. Her heats may stop when ages an old lady but that's a while off

 

[Rat Daddy]

Fuzzy Rat was an amazing true shoulder rat, but when she got onto the scent trail of a hot wild boy rat... all bets were off! She would get all glassy eyed and preen and hop about like a teenage girl getting ready for a prom, then she would put her nose to the ground and take off like a hound dog after an escaped felon... Thanks to her going all foggy and preening up, we were able to pounce on her before she got too much speed up, but we learned pretty quickly not to go where wild rats lived... Sometimes she would still obey her commands, but depending on how hot the perceived male rat was, it wasn't something we could bank on. I'm sure she would have come back... with a litter of half wild pups.

This continued until she was pretty old, so I suppose you might say our rat became a cougar.

 

[new_rattie_mommy]

She has been having this terrible behavior lately of biting me when shes under my blanket on my bed. She doesnt draw blood but it hurts. I grab her if I can and bop her nose and always yell ow no rose but shes quick and I cant always catch her. Now tonight she even just came up on the bed and bit my side hard for no reason. Drew blood a little. Then ran away cuz I was gna catch her. Could this be an in heat behavior? Or is it just some other crazy thing she has now decided to do? I have no idea why shes doing it. I give her attention.

 

[Isamurat]

It sounds like ages ruling the roost with you. She sees you as a bit of a push over. In my experience firm handling tends to make a difference. so spend lots of time with just her making sure to pick her up firmly and stroke firmly even if she's not keen on the idea. so let her have her free range and such but make its clear is in your terms. Does like this can pick up on someone they see as weak and to be bossed around. My parents had a doe called mirriam like this. With me or my mum she was as good as gold. With my dad she would run up and no his nose then leg it, tug his arm etc. My dad is a rat walk over.

It could be that there's hormonal elements to this to si if firm handling doesn't help and she's still harassing the boys a spay may help with both problems

 

[new_rattie_mommy]

Yeah shes also a bully to the boys but sometimes I cant tell who started it. Usually its her starting it tho. I think it is the mating thing and then the boys dont know what she wants so they just chase her and she gets mad? But maybe shes just a bully. A fight between 2 of them escalated real bad last night and my boy was super upset afterwards. Idk what to do. ill try handling her more firmly tho. I do force handling on her even tho she hates it but maybe ill up it more. It worked with my independent boy. He wasnt mean but just skittish.