Aggressive young rat

[Richard]

Hi I added a young girl to my rats about 6 or 7 weeks ago and everything was going well now the the young rat has started to be aggressive to the original 3 she is biting and drawing blood from the older rats I have i haven't had this problem with adding rats before she will be around 15 weeks old now am i going to hav to rehome her to protect my other 3 girls i have tried covering them all in coconut oil as I do when I have added new rats in the past without any trouble unfortunately this time it hasn't worked

[cyber ratty]

How old are your other rats? If there is a big age gap then that may explain her behaviour, rats should have some same age companionship so that they can play and develop together. It may be that she is pestering your other girls because they don't want to play her type of game.

[Richard]

The older pair are about 6 months older and I have one that's about 3 months older than the youngest one that's about 16 weeks old she is the aggressive one

[cyber ratty]

The 4 month old could be suffering from polycystic ovaries, and she may benefit from being spayed - although I'd wait another month or so if you can to give her more time to mature. It's worth trying, as it often reduces aggressive behaviour.

Incidentally, given that you were permitted to take her on her own as a kitten, it implies that the place you got her from is not acting responsibly, so it's unlikely they will have tried to select away from behavioural problems - in future I'd recommend going to a good breeder or rescue centre instead.

[Richard]

When I got the young girl the lady in the store she asked me if I could take the two rat's that the shop had but unfortunately I only have enough room for 4 rat's in my cage other wise I would have taken them both I haven't had any trouble introducing rat's in the past I've kept rat's for many years thank you for your help Richard