# Saliva = beserker mode?



## ghost (Jul 14, 2007)

This is a strange question, but....

So I've got my boy Squirt in my hand, and he's always been curious and energetic, so he's carefully examining all my fingers, and licking them. I switch him to the other hand while I go to do something else, and it just happens that one of those fingers had some spit on it, I had put it in my mouth earlier for some reason. There was no food on the finger, though, just saliva. As soon as he smelt/tasted/found that finger, he suddenly went beserk and attacked/bit it so hard he nearly drew blood. I was startled but didn't drop him, just quickly set him down in my lap. I'm positive he would have kept biting the finger if I hadn't.

What could have caused my sweet boy to do this? :/


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Forget the saliva, there's really no way a rat would do that over saliva. 
How old is your boy? Has he been acting in any way abnormal recently?


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

No... not saliva... otherwise rodentistry wouldn't be very popular.

It certainly sounds strange...


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## ghost (Jul 14, 2007)

He's almost 2 months old, and hasn't been acting strange at all. It seemed to have come out of the blue!


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## mopydream44 (Jun 10, 2007)

My Ostrich tried to bite my finger when I had a bandage on it! He kept going for it, and it seemed like an attack rather than him thinking it was a treat! Once I took the bandage off he sniffed and licked my finger then stopped. 


so i dunno. Maybe the slightly different smell makes them think it's an intruder??


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## ghost (Jul 14, 2007)

Oh i know! I have a bad-aid on my thumb right now from slicing the tip off at work cutting lemons. One of the boys goes for it every time, as if to shred it all to pieces, and the finger too! But the other boy flat out ignores it.

Its so strange...


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Bandaids are like feathers to rats...KILL KILL!!
I have to remove bandaids before handling my rats or constantly turning that part of my hand away from them. They just can't help it. :roll:


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## Lesath (Jul 14, 2007)

My ratties go insane over my ring. They are always on this quest to remove the stones from my rings. They prefer my left hand to my right hand just because of the ring. I better be careful before they succeed!


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## ghost (Jul 14, 2007)

I found out what was going on!!!

This is so horrible, and yet so funny...

I realized today that the boys' water dropper was broken- even though it was filled full, and I heard them going at it day and night, there was nothing coming out! The ball was lodged! So the poor babies had been without water for almost 3 days~! That's why Squirt went after my spit so voraciously that day.

Oh man, I feel like such a bad rat mommie! T_T


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Oh gosh! Poor things!


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## Lesath (Jul 14, 2007)

Oh no, poor ratties! At least you discovered before it was too late. I try to put fresh water in my rats bottles daily. Check them daily just in case from now on!


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## cjshrader (Feb 15, 2007)

I once got a gummi rat from a friend, and underneath it had all these "rat facts" on it. One of the facts said that a rat can go longer without water than a camel. Has anyone else heard this? Can't a camel go something ridiculous like 45 days?

I know the way my rats drink, they can't go more than an hour without water. But I wonder how long until a rat is seriously injured from dehydration.


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## Lesath (Jul 14, 2007)

Maybe rats can take advantage of this somehow:

"Although water is vital to human health, such is not the case with all rodents. Desert dwelling kangaroo rats, gerbils and prairie dogs never drink water. A chemical process transforms part of their solid food into water."


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