My new rats keep biting, help!!!?

Question

We have 2 rats that we bought tuesday. We left them for 2 days (As advised by the pet shop), My boyfriend has been introducing himself to the rats over the past few days, allowing them to sniff his hand. He has been trying to handle them but hasnt even managed to get them onto his hand yet as they bite him everytime his hand is in the cage and have drawn blood once.

Answer 1

This is not the norm for pet rats. Rats are not suppose to bite. Babies, especially those around 5 to 12 weeks of age are gentle creatures and would rather explore your hand and nibble rather then bite. I've even played with rats in a pet store that were bred by a feeder breeder and these babies were so well-socialized that I brought a couple home.

Here are the reasons for rats that bite and it all has to do with pet store rats:
* Babies were born at the store. Mother was so over-protective/territorial/nervous that she bit any one who came near. Now, of course when the rat bites, the hand is quickly with-drawn from the cage. This is our knee-jerk reaction for self-preservation but to the rat she has succeeded and therefore will continue this habit. Her Babies learned from their mother to bite. BTW ethical breeders would never have bred a rat with this potential to bite.
* No one at the store liked rats so the rats were never handled and therefore missed that crucial stage of proper handling during that growth period of birth to 5 weeks old.
* Employees mishandle the rats. They pick up the rats by their tail, or they drop the rats from a height.
* Employees and customers alike harrass the rats. Teasing them, chasing them with their hands, pinching them, and otherwise terrifing the rats while the rats are in their cage.
* The rats can become terrified/nervous if they are placed beside other animals in the store that the rat would either be the prey of, or the predator of.

Do you know if your rats had to endure any of the above?
How old are your rats?
Did the rats pick you out? Did you let the rats come to your hand and you picked out the two boys that seemed the friendliest towards you? Or did you let the employee chase a couple of rats around the cage until he caught two? The latter is very terrifying to rats. Imagine yourself being ripped away from your family and friends in that manner.

Are you sure the rats bit your boyfriend????
Rats are very curious and will nibble, sometimes hard when they are babies. They don't know the strength of those little teeth, but they don't break the skin when they nibble. Maybe this startled your boyfriend and he jerked his hand back. He cut his skin in the baby's teeth as he drew back his hand.
Does he use a cologne or soap, a smell that lingers on his hands, that might be offending the rats?
Is he moving too fast in trying to pet or pick up the rats?

"We left them for 2 days (As advised by the pet shop)". This was not good info. Like I've said before, pet stores do not know how to properly care for rats. They generalize their rodent care, lump all the info together, and pass it out with every rodent they sell. This was not good info for rats. Being removed from the only life they knew, placed in a new cage, surrounded by new sights, new sounds, and new smells, and then being ignored for two days, is no way to build trust with your new babies. Now they are nervous and don't know what to make of you. "Are you friend, or foe?", Are you going to eat me?"

So, now that you know the reasons why you are not bonding with your new ratties, we have to find the cure.

What has worked for me is just placing my hand in the cage without moving it. I let the rats' natural curiosity get the better of them and they come to me to investigate. At this time, they probably don't want to eat from hand so I don't bother. In time, their curiosity will be satisfied and they will go about their business in the cage. Now I fill my hand with the food that I normally feed and approach the trust training in the same manner. When they are eating from my hand I then substitute the regular food with a treat. First offering it from the tips of my fingers and gradually moving it up in my hand. This causes the rat to climb into my hand to eat it. When they are comfortable with this I now raise my hand, each time getting them used to being higher and higher in my hand, the training goes on, in baby steps, until they trust me enough to handle them the way I would like to.

More information. The following Bonding, Trust-training, techniques were written by experts on both Holistarat and the Ratlist, both Yahoo forums. These techniques, and my own method, have worked for me when I first got into rat keeping 11 years ago.
Bonding with your rats:
http://www.rattyrat.com/guidebook/bonding.html
http://www.petinfopackets.com/rats/ratinfopacket.html
http://members.aol.com/juliesrats/behavior.html#bonding
Forced Socialization:
http://members.aol.com/juliesrats/behavior.html#bonding
article just below bonding.
Trust training:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?search=Trust+Training+your+rats&ei=UTF-8&fr=ks-ans&ico-yahoo-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAscYqL80.x8jy71l3_Mj6BgazKIX%2FSIG%3D111gjvvgj%2F*-http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch&ico-wikipedia-search-value=http%3A%2F%2Frds.yahoo.com%2F_ylt%3DAsuRZXHyX3jz_HHQlFel4xgazKIX%2FSIG%3D11ia1qo58%2F**http%253a%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpecial%253aSearch&p=Trust+Training+your+rats

And this link will help you understand your rats' behavior:
http://www.ratbehavior.org/

I see this is your fourth question to Yahoo! Answers. I'm enjoying your enthusiasm as a new rat owner :). May I suggest that you join both the Yahoo Groups, Ratlist and Holistarat http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holistarat to learn all you can about keeping your rats healthy and happy from pet rat experts world-wide. Some of your chosen "best answers" are not entirely correct in the care of rats.

Sandra Beasley and the Spaz Rats
(Rattery, Rescue, and Rat-care Expert)
http://spazrats.tripod.com
"my life has gone to the rats"

Answer 2

I've seen this before. Your rats are unsocialized. They are not being aggressive, and they aren't scared; they are just ignorant. All they know about the human hand is that when it goes into the cage, food appears. When you put your hand in without food, they think the hand must be the food this time. I don't think you got very good advice from the pet shop.
Just take a rat out and handle it and pet it. Within a few minutes you will have a nice tame rat. Honestly, I know. Pet rats, with very few exceptions, have a friendly and fearless temperament.

Answer 3

There have already been lots of good answers to this. . . I have one more suggestion for you. Paint brushes.
It's a technique some re-homing centres use with rats and other small rodents who bite a lot.
If the rats continue to refuse a hand being in the cage, get a large and soft paint brush (arty type - not decorating type!) and stroke them with that. They cannot bite you and gradually become used to being touched and learn that biting does not stop contact. Handle the brush lots so it smells of you. After brushing, reward with a yoghurt or milk drop (rodent sweeties readily available in pet stores).
Remember, rattie eye sight is really bad so make sure you talk to them plenty whilst trying to train them, so they can associate your smell and calming voice with nicenesses such as yoghurt drops!
If they are boys, castration may help - seek vet advice.

Answer 4

Please look here www.fancy-rats.co.uk for one of the most knowledgeable, friendly pet rat forums! One of my rats used to bite when I put my hand in the cage. It is their territory and they are just scared. It can be quite common behaviour for unsocialised pet shop rats. Cover your bed or sofa with an old sheet and put your rats cage on the bed/sofa. Sit down a few feet away from their cage and let them come to you. Do this daily, please be patient. They will grow in confidence and the biting will stop. If they are pink-eyed their eyesight will also be much poorer than dark-eyed rats. The biting is not personal, they just see a dark shape looming and consider it a threat.

Answer 5

If you bought the rats half grown or as adults, my best advice is to return them to the pet shop. Tell them you want rats that are just weaned or a little larger than a large egg. We sell rats as pets all the time as pets and recommend them over gerbils and hamsters because they are gentle and intelligent pets and do not bite when purchased young. They probably sold you feeder female rats or some that someone had for feeders and returned.
Males are the friendliest overall and rats do like a rat companion.

Answer 6

One of my rats bit 4 times and broke the skin. We asked around and we got told to lift the rat out with a blanket and put him on our bed or bathroom so he couldn't get away. One he had got used to that and started to enjoy our company we started handling him and now he is loving and easy to touch he even let's my 6 year old handle him. We even thought him some tricks

If you need more info on this then call your breeder or pet shop and ask about it, its most likely cage territorial.

Have fun and don't give up on your Rattie

Answer 7

lower your hand gently and leave it still, try to get a corner away from the rats, let them walk over it.
use this method to lift them out as well, few animals would be happy to see a big hand trying to grab them from behind....allow them to run onto the hand.

to those who say the rats are disgusting, they are actually a very good, clean pet, totally unlike its wild counterpart....it has been shown that they are a damn sight less likely to bite than the so called 'cuddly' pets...in fact, out of all the rats i have owned, i have only ever suffered from one bite and this was pure stupidity on my side, i was trying to lift the top of a nest to see the young rats....the female obviously took exception to this...ouch!

edit: just noticed a previous answer....yes, rats are quite happy with other rat company, but if you have a male and female and they breed you will need to get the male out asap before the pinkies arrive.

Answer 8

That's really weird....rats dont usually bite. Possibly the pet store did something to them to make them dis-trust all humans?

I'd just be really patient with them right now. Offer them treats, sit by their cage, and talk gently to them. If you can, leave your hand in the cage, even when they bite (I know, hard to do)...don't retaliate, dont freak out, or you'll scare them. Try putting yogurt on your hand so that they have to eat it off, so they'll soon realize that your hands arent threatening.

Right now theyre petrified, and feel they need to protect themselves from you.(Which is why I think something must have happened to them, usually even the most scared rat wont resort to biting)

Its up to you guys to teach them that youre not a threat. It'll take a while but with persistance, patience, and a lot of treats , they should come around.


By the way, the people answering and saying rats are disgusting have obviously never owned them, and are basing their opinions on sheer ignorance. Rats are very clean, very social creatures and make great pets. Try doing your research before you diss them next time.

Answer 9

They don't sound tame! You can put their scent on you by washing your hands with unscented soap, then smearing their urine on your hand. Thats what they use to mark their scent trails and territory, they leave a drop of pee every few steps.
Put you hand flat in the cage and sit still, put some food on your palm using the other hand, and let them come and investigate.
Sometimes small rodents see your hand as a threat (especially if its looming in from above, like an owl ready to grab them) or just mistake it for food.

Answer 10

handle them with some gardening gloves on so they don't get you when they bite, and have some peanuts or sugar puffs as treats to give them as they sit in your hand, then put them back, repeat a few times a day, they are very intelligent and will soon get the idea and be really friendly.

Answer 11

you know that stuff you put on your finger tips to stop you biting your nails, he could try that, it might just put them off. Rats are very clever. Make sure he doesn't force the issue of holding but let them come to him of their own accord. Their young, they wont be used to being handled so give them time. best of luck