I am trying to breed a male and female rat, and the male is just very submissive. I want him to breed to pass on his gentle and affectionate temperament. Like, he would play with me the first day I got him, and would let him over his belly and tickle him. It was very unusual for me to see a rat so immediately easy to handle and so gentle.

So, I introduced a female to him yesterday. She should go into estrus tomorrow, or it may be delayed to the next day. And well. I don't even know if he'll even be capable of breeding her. She has totally established dominance over him, and frequently pins him down and grooms him. He may be too much of a push over to even breed.

She is a robust female, but I am choosing in her thinking of the health of my girls, and she is my rat with the second best temperament. I don't want to risk the life of one of my little girls to be too frail to handle pregnancy and birth especially my best behaved girl she is a dwarf rat. Not a dwarf rat ins breed, but a dwarf rat as in a total runt. She has a sister that is quite robust.

Does anyone have experience with males being too submissive to breed a female?