[Storyseeker]

I just neutered my two five month old hairless boys. It's been slightly less than three weeks. I went to play with them today, and all of a sudden they feel differently.

Their skin is softer and more velvety. It's pinker with the absence of buck grease and they have lost all the peach fuzz from their bodies. Also, their muscle tone seems less firm.

They also don't stink anymore. When I first got them at 5 weeks, they had a sharp almost horse manure smell to them. With a diet change this improved some, but they were always stronger smelling than the furry rats. They always smelled of rat litter box when I'd pick them up. Now, they smell rather pleasant. A vague 'animal' smell without the reek.

Not to mention the marked improvement in sweetness of personality.

Holy rat poop Batman. If I knew a neuter would make this much of a difference, I'd have gotten them neutered at the first opportunity.

 

[breyer08]

Wow, that really is amazing! What a difference it can make...I would never have known! So, is it true that hairless rats tend to be a bit more aggressive? My only experience with one was my cousin's female, and sadly she was a lone rat. I didn't get to spend much time with her, but she seemed fairly friendly.

 

[Storyseeker]

I don't know if all hairless rats are more aggressive. I do know that when I got mine, they were always more ornery than my other rats. When I commented on that to their breeder she actually said she picked rats with more 'personality' for breeding because she liked them 'spunky'. So, she was deliberately breeding towards aggressive tenancies whether she realized it or not.

As I have discovered in getting to know her, she is a self taught back yard breeder who started with pet store stock about 5 generations back, but is trying really hard to become a reputable breeder. She is just spending too much time reinventing the wheel. If I knew early on what I know now, I wouldn't have gotten any rats from her.

I am keeping her apprised of their development in detail, and she has said she's going to discontinue her hairless line, though I think it's because of their health issues rather than their temperament. Skinner has already had three bouts of myco flare ups and he's not even six months old . We'll see. I am seeing improvements in her approach just since talking to her. She asked my candid opinion of her rattery and I gave it to her in detail. She has taken at least some of my constructive criticism to heart.

 

[breyer08]

Well, at least it's a good sign that she's truly interested in hearing what you have to say. And I'm glad she seems to really be trying to educate herself in the whole breeding area. Hopefully she's learned a lot of valuable things from this experience, which she can use in the future!

 

[VanillaRat]

Interesting. I noticed when I had hairless rats,they smelled different the furries as well. I had 3 males and a female and all had bit of a weird odor...I always said my female smelled like "butt",poor girl.

And no,hairless rats are not more aggressive then furry rats? That is the first time I heard that. All 4 of my hairless were sweet. My female had bit of a more spunky attitude,but the guys were all laid back. Hairless are more prone to getting illness though.

I don't ever plan on neutering my rats,unless I had a bad aggression issue. But that is neat that it has changed your nekkies so drastically in a good way.

 

[Storyseeker]

Hahaha. "Butt" is a good description. I told my foster who'd never kept rats before that they were not stinky. But then I had to apologize when I'd left them with her for a couple of weeks. Rats aren't stinky. My hairless rats STANK.