Can a spayed girl live with intact boys?

[veggies]

I am thinking of adopting a young spayed girl from a local shelter, and I currently have two 7 month old boys. I need to ask the shelter how old she is, but from the pictures she looks to be about 2 months. My boys are as sweet as can be and have never shown any aggression towards anyone, but they do love to pounce and wrestle with each other.

I have tried researching this combination and have read that it does work, and the boys stop pestering her once they realize she doesn't go into heat. I was wondering if anyone here has been in this situation and if the introduction process would be any different than normal (I've never had to do an intro-- my rats always came in pairs as babies). I thought introducing a girl to them would be easier than introducing a male, and a young girl would be able to keep up with my dominant male's playful nature (his brother is getting tired of it I think )

 

[jorats]

Adding a spayed girl to two males would be the best scenario to adding buddies to the colony. It should be an easy enough intro. Your boys may or may not become obsessed with her bits but that usually stops after awhile.

 

[Joanne]

I think that's a great idea - I would think introing a girl would be easier than a boy.
I have a mixed colony of two boys and five girls - everybody is spayed and neutered.

 

[veggies]

Thanks for your input guys. I am very hopeful but still very hesitant-- I have heard so many horror stories about intros gone wrong.

When it comes time to meet after doing all the other steps of an intro, would I introduce one boy at a time to her or both boys at once? Also, my dominant boy, Baron, is pretty laid back and sweet, but he's definitely dominant. Sometimes when they are play wrestling, he will do the little side karate kicks. I read that this is an aggressive behavior, but he always seems like he is playing. He has done it since he was very young during wrestle sessions. It always ends with mutual grooming and he's never injured his brother or anything of that sort.

Do the kicks mean he is too dominant? He never 'poofs' or anything, it's just when they're playing together he will do the side hopping kicks and then pounce and power groom. It might just be popcorning, I'm not sure. I just want ensure that the new adopted girl will be as safe as possible.

 

[Joanne]

Since rats have a definite hierarchy, I would introduce them at the same time.
I *think* most of the 'intros gone wrong' have been between intact males. When I intro'd a new girl to my group (8 rats!), my neutered alpha male, Dudley, even mounted the new girl and quickly did the 'nasty', even though he'd been neutered since he was 7 weeks old! It was the only time I ever saw him do it, and did I laugh!

 

[EDK]

I hear some boys might pester a spayed girl for a bit but it eventually dies down. Im no expert though, my boys are neutered and my girls are still intact. More like the girls harass my boys but they need a bit of bullying around lol

 

[veggies]

EDK, I actually just watched one of your youtube videos earlier today while looking at videos of introductions. You were talking about your introduction between your boys and Data. That was one of the things that scared me. But I was really glad to see another video after the hairless girls had their first night in the cage and everyone was playing with each other. Thats what Im hoping for