I have 2 female rats almost 1 year old and they bite. If i try to pick them up when there facing me they will bite me or if they smell my fingers they will bite me. Just today one of them was crawling around on my friends stomach and bit it. Is there anyway to stop this?
2006-07-14 18:40:02 · 11 answers · asked by Cristy 2 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
Im not going to give them away or kill them.
2006-07-14 18:47:23 · update #1
First off, are they biting from fear, malice, or curiosity?
If it is fear, then you need to go back to square one and gain their trust. Never approach them from behind, never move to fast. They feel secure when they believe they could get away from your hand if they really want to.
If they are biting from malice, you need to know where the root of the problem lies, and treat it accordingly. Most pet rats that bite maliciously do it because they were once scared and bit from fear, the fear has mostly left but the biting stayed; or they may have been curiosity biters who discovered that the annoying hand left in a hurry when they bit it, and determined to do this more often. Its very rare that a rat will actually be mean for no reason, a malice biter will require a lot of work and will easily slip into their old habits. You need to treat them much the same as the reason in which their habit is rooted (if the root is curiosity, treat it much like a curiosity biter, etc.),
A curiosity biter just wants to see what it can get away with, approach it gently and calmly, leaving your hand inside the cage while you work with it. The average curiosity biter will not instantly chomp on you, but will nose around your hand a bit. You allow them to sniff your fingers, but the second they open their mouths (whether to lick or to nibble, anything to do with their mouths instead of their noses) tell them "no" in a strong, sharp tone of voice. Chances are they will back off entirely, simply leave your hand in there and allow them to get close again, repeat the process.
It can be difficult to reform a biter, but in my experience its always been well worth it :)
P.S. Seperate them when you work with them, unless they are fear biters, in which case seperation will make them even more frightened
2006-07-15 18:32:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
Some rats just have a biting personality, especially males, they are more "hot-headed". In my personal experience I had a female Rat I called Callie, I had her for around two years, she trusted me from the start, she was a little sweet heart. By the end of her life she started biting and being aggressive and it made no one wanna spend time with her. Turns out she had cancer. So just be careful, however, I don't think that's the case with you being that you said they treated the rats bad earlier. Maybe this is something that will just take a bit of time. When he bites you, give him a little flick on his nose or something (not too hard!! Just a little sting), that will teach him not to bite.
2016-03-27 06:01:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My daughter has both male and female pet rats. The males don't bite, they lick your fingers when you put your hand into their house. The girls generally don't bite, but if they do, my daughter will take the offending rat out of their house and put them in solitary confinement for a short period of time (solitary confinement is one of those little portable hamster houses). She only keeps them in there for a short period of time but after she puts them back in their big house, it's like they know they did something wrong. Also when she takes them out of the bigger house (on their way to solitary), she says NO! Rats are pretty smart and this seems to stop the behavior (at least for a while). Also, rats sometimes bite because they think you are giving them food and they don't realize that it is your finger and not a cheetos... lol. Just be patient with them and try some sort of behavior modification (like the solitary confinement)... it seems to work for my daughter's rats. Good luck.
2006-07-15 04:48:31 · answer #3 · answered by WenckeBrat 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
get a large rock & crush the little rats head flat then the ******* wont bite you simple to do but put some paper down first the blood & brains do make a bit of a mess
2006-07-15 12:43:42 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had pet rats too, and I had 2 girls, they would bite me but it was more a nibble then bite, it never hurt me and they would lick the salt off my hands too. do they draw blood or just little nibbles?
2006-07-14 18:59:56 · answer #5 · answered by moosenose1981 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pet rats? ummm...don't stick your hand in the cage...specially if it smells like cheeeeeeeze.
2006-07-14 18:44:34 · answer #6 · answered by ~p♥kes~ 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Kill them.
2006-07-14 18:42:59 · answer #7 · answered by Tam C 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Introduce your cat to it on a lead and watch the co-operation happen.
2006-07-14 18:46:03 · answer #8 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
rats are filthy animals get rid of them & they wont bite you
2006-07-14 18:43:58 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Give em away
2006-07-14 18:43:37 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋