Time frame for reintroduction post neuter?

[MomRat]

So, we finally found the moolah to get Gregory neutered(by dumping out both coin jars! :wallbang: ), and he has an appt for Monday morning. He is our second male to be neutered, and the first to be neutered for a reason other than being crazy agressive/drawing blood on people and other rats. When we had Quilt neutered, we waited a good long time before reintroducing him to his old cage mate(gregory), because we were waiting for the agression to die down. We're having Gregory neutered because he is super high strung, and regularly bites ratty ears - he's been improving on his people skills, but not so much in the cage. He cuddles and does ok about 50% of the time, and the rest of the time we're checking for injuries/ear bites. So, without major agression, and just taking into account his healing time, How long do we wait to open the CN back up so that everyone can play together? The only other concern is that since Quilt's neuter, Dominic(who will be the ONLY rat left intact after monday) has been agressively interested in Quilt's manhood, mostly in an alpha sort of way, but it could still be a source of danger to new sutures. So, how long do you wait?

 

[lj]

How many cagemates does he have?

I usually put mine in the same day or the next day, but if you have concerns about another ripping out stitches, maybe wait a week?

 

[DadRat]

It's just those 3 boys.

Quilt [neutered] and Dominic [oldest and intact]. Quilt is now a big squish rat but Dom is very interested in how Quilt's ex-goolies smells. We're just wondering how many days before a potential scuffle or just playing could open up his neuter site.

Our vet uses Dermabond or such so there were no external stitches for Quilt's neuter.

 

[jorats]

I would probably put him back in right away.
They heal so fast, when it's a very small colony like yours and the neuter wasn't due to real aggression, he'd be back with his buds.

 

[DadRat]

We're hoping the neuter will make them more buds. Greg has a really bad habit of ear biting everyone else. He really confuses Dom, who is a rather laid back [almost 2 and kinda pudgy] alpha. Dom puffs up and side hops Greg, Greg bites his ear. Dom squeaks and puffs more and side hops with great vigor...Greg freezes then bites Dom's ear.

Odd rat is odd. He has given both Quilt and Dom little pin pricks in their ears and [we think it has been Greg anyways] given Dom a few nasty shoulder bites. But then snuggles up and sleeps with/on/under them. Crazy little boy....

 

[mamarat]

It sounds so funny but I guess it isn't? I've noticed sometimes when neutering the one who is aggressive the other will take his place so now if one bro is aggressive I get them all done at the same time.

 

[MomRat]

Yeah, we're poor. Literally, I said to David, if there are $100 in the change jar, we have a $50 gift card and we can afford it. Counted up the whole jar. Fortunately, our vet fund and neuter fund are not the same cash...

It's funny you mention though... we wonder if Gregory's ear biting is some kind of PTSD, since when Quilt became all agressive from moving into our space he ripped a chunk out of one of Gregory's ears before we separated them. =/

 

[mamarat]

Sorry, I just meant that it had surprised me that the other bro became the aggressive one once his brother had been neutered.

 

I have 5 males, When I got my first neuter done, it was with my Agressive Rat, I left him out of the cage for about 5 days, never had a hitch sence ..and he was real aggresive, cusing 12 stiches in one of my rats a week before he got neutered :wallbang:

Shortly after I got anotehr boy neutered due to a lump, after he was neutered, 5 days later I put him in with evryone, but he didn't seem to get along great with them, he was so lazy ..and the 3 unneutered boys were not, so I took the two neutered boys and got them their own cage, but they do have play dates with the other 3 everyday and do fine.