my female rat is 9 weeks and is becoming more agressive, why?

Question

she is biting me and im afraid to pick her up and she keeps bullying my other female wich is a year old. why is this?

Answer 1

I'd say this is probably a show of dominance. It happens with all rats, even males. Neutering calms males. Females are known to be energetic power-explorers, but it doesn't make them aggressive. How big is your cage? Rats need 2'x2'x2' of space per rat not to feel cramped.

Rats reach sexual maturity at 5 weeks, so I really don't think its because she's in heat. The "don't let them eat meat" thing is a myth. Rats are omnivores in the first place... some kinds of meat are good for them. Desplintered chicken leg bones are one of the best things to help keep their teeth ground down.

One of the most important things right now is not to train her to bite. By recoiling, you teach her that you'll get/stay out of her space. This isn't the first case of this happening, so don't worry. Treats and handling will be your friend here. How long have you had them?

Answer 2

Although it is very unusual for a healthy, well-socialized rat to bite, there are several different things that may be causing this aggression in your girl. A vet exam to make sure that there isn't a health-related cause is a good first step.
Also, she might smell food or another animal on your hands. Maybe she simply needs to be handled more frequently.
Although our rats & mice don't eat meat, this does *not* cause aggression. I've given them meat in the past & there was never a problem. Also, being in heat doesn't necessarilly cause aggression-- none of our girls has bitten anyone during this time & it's easy to tell when they're going through their cycle.
If she's not biting *hard* she could be playing, you can train her to stop doing this by saying 'no!' firmly (or squeaking like an annoyed rat). If she is simply playing too roughly, she &the older girl will work things out between themselves. You don't need to separate them unless one is bleeding, or definately seems distressed.
Some rats have 'cage aggression' & protect their cage fiercely but are fine when outside of the cage. We had 1 girl who gradually developed this & I learned pretty quickly to wait until she was away from the cage before cleaning it.
Unfortunately, a few rats are simply biters, just like some individual dogs, humans or anyone else might be unusually agressive. We've only had 1 rat who was a veteran biter. We adopted her @ about 9-10 weeks of age & recently lost her @ over 2.5 years. We think the poor girl just wasn't right in her mind & just kept her as happy as we could under the circumstances.
Good luck with your girl. She's still very young & hopefully this biting is jut a temporary problem.

Answer 3

I got my two rats at 10 weeks old and one of them had the aggression problem for about a week or so. she ended up injuring her sister and I decided to try to keep them together to see what happened. Now they sleep together, groom each other and are compeltely fine. They are about 5 months old now and doing great. Give them a little time, if she continues to be aggressive take her out and put her into another cage.

Also about the eating meat thing that someone said above. I have never heard of that..My rats have gotten a small piece of chicken before and they didnt get aggressive. I asked a rat breeder and she also said that is not true.

Answer 4

Did she bite before? Some rats can be aggressive, but most aren't. She might have a medical problem such as a mammary tumor that makes it painful to be picked up. Pain can also make animals aggressive.

Find a vet who deals with exotics and/or small animals, and bring her in. If they rule out illness or pain, it might just be that her true temperament is showing. Sometimes spaying can help this since it balances the female hormones.

Answer 5

This behavior does seem odd. I've known them to fight with the male if they are in the same cage and the female feels threatened. But in this case, maybe she had a bad experience with a male rat before, and she doesn't know how to act now. I would suggest keeping the cages seperated so you don't cause her too much stress.

Answer 6

female rats reach sexual maturity between 3 to 8 weeks, once they reach sexual maturity thy begin to go through heat every 5 or so days...this is quite often and lasts about 12 hours i believe. so perhaps she is going though this? also (usually with males but sometimes with females) the rat begins to get raging hormones, these hormones make them feel 'tough' 'big chested' lol you know 'in charge' it also can cause agression such as hissing and sometimes biting...most will eventually grow out of it but some rats never quite grow out of it and the only way i know is castration..wich i dont like to do to animals for moral reasons i guess...try googling it.

Answer 7

ask yourself 2 questions, has she gotten into the taste of some meat of some kind? If no, is she coming into heat? If that is the case you will have to separate them. If nether of these answers are satisfying than you might find a professional who knows, I just know that when we had our rats those were the 2 cases that we came across, the one who had eaten meat we had to put down.

Answer 8

I HAD A PET RAT BEFORE AND IT WAS A MALE...I WAS TOLD THAT FEMALE RATS ARE MORE AGRESSIVE THAN THE MALES...MINE WAS SO SWEET...LICKED MY FACE AND WAS ALWAYS SO EXCITED TO SEE ME WHENEVER I WAS GONE AND CAME BACK HOME...I WOULD SEPARATE HER FROM THE OTHERS IN CASE SHE DECIDES TO SERIOUSLY HURT ANOTHER ONE...HERES A SITE WHERE "RAT PPL" CAN TALK ABOUT THEIR RATS TO OTHER RAT OWNERS......GOOD LUCK...

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RATS-AS-PETS/

Answer 9

Rats mature quickly ... she may be going into "heat" and she does not want your other rat to get any potential "dates" that she wants. :-)