# Pet rat always bites out of nowhere (please help)



## pralina96 (Jul 22, 2020)

Pet rat biting out of nowhere (please help, I dont know what to do)

Hello! I bought my first pet rats (3 boys in total, aged between 6-8 weeks) last Saturday and brought them home.
I left them alone over the night so that they could calm down.
After that I slowly started to try and bond with them, by giving them food, holding my hand inside the cage, so that they could get used to my smell
Two of the rats are still a bit shy but are more and more curious, come up to me, lick my hand and even start to try and come out of the cage for short periods of time
I haven’t lifted them up yet, because I want them to feel a bit more comfortable first. My problem now is one of the boys, called mochi.
He also seemed Interested, came up to me, sniffed and licked me etc
At one point I tried to feed him some banana, which worked quite well, but then he suddenly bit down. So hard, that he drew blood.
So of course that scared me, but I thought that he just thought that my hand was food because of the banana. So I started to feed him with a spoon, so that he’ll understand to not immediately bite down that hard
That worked out quite well at first, but now, everytime I let him sniff my hand, even just my knuckles, he tries to bite and ALWAYS breaks the skin ( at least a bit) I’m not invading his space and he always comes up to me on his own accord and sniffs first (I started to always wash my hand with hot water and neutral soap to get rid of any possible food smells) but he won’t stop biting down...of course I’ve only had the rats for a few days, but I’m worried on how to handle him and what to do to make him stop and become more used to me.
Do you have any suggestions on what to do?


----------



## a1phanine (Mar 27, 2018)

Make a big ouch noise to make them jump and pull your hand back, they should learn that its not good, you may want to feed off a spoon for a bit longer, they do not like biting on metal.


----------



## orangeversion (Jul 7, 2020)

pralina96 said:


> Pet rat biting out of nowhere (please help, I dont know what to do)
> 
> Hello! I bought my first pet rats (3 boys in total, aged between 6-8 weeks) last Saturday and brought them home.
> I left them alone over the night so that they could calm down.
> ...


Maybe your rat is thinking it is fun that's why he is doing. You can make noise when your rat is biting you. Your rat may get scared at first but he will know it is not good to bite.


----------



## Vividdonut12 (Nov 26, 2020)

orangeversion said:


> Maybe your rat is thinking it is fun that's why he is doing. You can make noise when your rat is biting you. Your rat may get scared at first but he will know it is not good to bite.


I agree. Scampi, one of my rats plays a little too rough, he has only drawn blood once. He is bonded with me, and I know that he is not trying to harm me, but when he plays with me and his brother he gets a little too "into it". It helps a lot if you can squeak, and jerk your hand away. It lets them know, "Hey, that hurt." Scampi is biting less and less. I have heard of a few people who try to wear gloves. NEVER try this, your rats will become very scared of you and your hands. Also, try not to feed Mochi food with your hand, rats have bad vision and he could think your hand is food. So, continue feeding with a spoon. Keep up those bonding exercises, there are also many helpful videos online, it never hurts to research.


----------



## TwilxghtRat (Nov 27, 2020)

I posted this on someone else’s discussion, but it may help you too! 


> > Someone else: “Nibbling is normal but if they nibble too hard then make a little squeak to let them now that it hurts.”
> 
> 
> Me (modified for this reply): “I agree with this, make a loud squeaking noise if it happens again! One of my sweet girls bites, breaks the skin and draws blood if you put your finger through the bars of the cage, and I helped this by carefully getting her more used to my individual fingers, I did this by putting liquid food (applesauce, baby food etc) on a spoon at first then my finger until she was more used to it. This might not work for your rat because you said that Mochi bit even after using a spoon, but here is a helpful video!”


Helpful Video by Shadow the Rat!


----------

