# rat biting



## lag87 (Sep 7, 2010)

Hi all, I am new here and I hope you can help. My 12 year old son adopted 2 rats from a shelter about 4 days ago. My husband and I went with him and picked out two rats that we felt seemed friendly. All three of us handled them at the shelter. We brought them home and they seemed fine, one is definitely a little more shy while the other one loves to come out of his cage and be with us. He is great with me and my son, very social, climbs us, we hold him and he seems fine. However, he has bitten my husband twice. The first time I think was because my husband reached into the cage too fast to grab him, the rat bit him on the hand, it bled but wasn't too bad. But last night my husband came into the room with me where the rat was out of his cage and roaming around the room. My husband just sat there and let the rat run all over him, my husband didn't even move and the rat just lunged at his hand. This time it was really bad. It wasn't his finger, it was the back of his hand and my husband thinks he may have ripped a tendon. Now my husband wants to bring them back because he's afraid it will bite my son. My son is heartbroken. The rat hasn't shown any aggression toward me or my son, so what is going on?


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## eddricksmommy101 (Jul 16, 2010)

Hi there,
Maybe i can offer some help. What it sounds like is that your husband may have been touching food or candy or something that the rat smells and thinks is food. If that is the case just have him wash his hands before playing with your ratty.
But if that is not the case, it sounds like he's threatened by your husband, because he is larger than you and your son and is the "alpha male" of the house, and he just needs to show your ratty that hes not a threat to anyone by just being nice and gentle with your ratty and maybe spending some alone time with him to show him that he is not a threat.

Hope that helped
Emma.


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## Spazmonkey1565 (Sep 6, 2010)

Thats the same case for me but they both bite my girlfriend. She doesn't move at all. And they are fine with me. She washes her hands before touching them. Sometimes they're fine. Others they will draw blood. They don't bite me. Just a test nibble then they realise i'm not food and in about there business. Any thing you find to solve this i would be gratefull if you could tell me because i don't want to get rid of them but i don't want them to bite my partner all the time either


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## eddricksmommy101 (Jul 16, 2010)

Hehe, im just thinking if yours are girls. they might be jealous 

haha jk, but they are still getting to know her, and if she comes in their cage to get them too fast they get nervous and bite.


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## Spazmonkey1565 (Sep 6, 2010)

Haha no. They're boys lol. She doesnt put her hands in there lol. She waits for them to come to her


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## eddricksmommy101 (Jul 16, 2010)

Hmm, then it might be because they think shes food, and she might smell like food (this happened because of the type of soap my mom used, so ed mistook her for food and bit her hard, he did it once to me too, then we switched soaps)


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

it's most likely NOT the food thing, a rat would not lunge at food like that.
The rat may be hormonal, or scared. 
How old is the rat? This sounds a little like territorial aggression, in the cage or out of the cage?

Yes some rats MAY bite if you smell like food, but only if you have actual food on your hands.
And I highly doubt a rat would bite because of soap....thats a little hard to believe. A rat bites for other reasons, Biting is a genetic thing, the rats parents were probably biters.

a few other members who are experienced with bitey rats with bitey rats may be able to give advice


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

Soaps that smell strongly of fruit or sweet food can definitely make a rat bite, found that out the hard way : Maybe there's a scent on your husband that is bothering your rat? They have great memories and WILL remember the smell of someone who harmed or abused them in the past. It's hard to say specifically why he would be biting your husband and not you or your son, though it might be a hormonal problem. In that case, a neuter would definitely curb their aggression. Maybe the shelter would be willing to have one of their vets do it. Do you know how old they are? If you don't, if you could post pictures of them, i'm sure someone could give a guesstimate.


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

I had no idea about the soap. All I use is scentless hospital soap and lightly scented hand soap, my rats never cared lol.

I have only ever been bitten badly once, by a pregnant rat.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

Yeah, same with hand lotions and chapstick and stuff too. Only after savagely biting and attempting to drag your hand off to a corner, do they try to lick it off and realize it tastes terrible :

I've only been bitten bad once by a hormonal cage territorial aggressive boy, it was my own fault though. don't split up fights with bare hands! :-X


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## lag87 (Sep 7, 2010)

hey everyone, thanks for the responses. the rats are about three months old. 
he bit my husband outside of the cage, we were both sitting on
the floor letting the rats explore, he was all over my husband and then just
latched onto his hand, he even hung onto him for a second. he went to
the doctors today for a tetnus shot, the doctor said
we were crazy for having rats and now my husband really
wants to return them.


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## eddricksmommy101 (Jul 16, 2010)

Well, all i can say, if you make the decision to get rid of them, do NOT bring them back to the petstore/breeder whatever.

Post an ad on the Rats Needing Homes section 

Someone will respond.


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

Well if you got them from a Breeder the breeder should ALWAYS get the rats back first.
It's usually on the contract.
And no offense to your doctor, but that's an extremely ignorant thing to say how would you have responded if the doctor called you crazy for getting bitten by a dog for example, I personally would have been very offended.
Pets are a commitment, and can't just be thrown out. The rats won't make you sick, you just have to wash your hands after handling them like any animal.

They are still babies really, and could use some socializing. Give them a chance, one aggressive rat does not define the species.


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## lag87 (Sep 7, 2010)

it was a shelter, hes more just worried that the rat will bite our son the way it bit him. my son has been letting them out and socializing with them, hes been wearing gloves. i can tell hes a little nervous though that his rat will bite him the same way. has anyone ever been bitten that badly?


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

It happens, it can happen with any pet.
The rat needs time to adjust. Have you considered a neuter?


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## lashes (Sep 12, 2010)

I just got 2 girls a couple weeks ago now, and one had no problem getting used to us, but the other has acted a little aggressive towards both of us. Its kind of funny because one of the girls seems to like my boyfriend more than me because he IS a boy, and the other one dislikes him because he's a boy. But she's drawn blood once on both of us, and it is kinda scary. You feel a little helpless too because you don't know how to punish such tiny creatures.

They are like dogs though, and can easily be trained. If the rat bites again, IMMEDIATELY (and I say this with urgency because there's a 3 second time frame after the crime where you can teach them that it's not ok to bite), make a TTTSSSSST sound like Cesar Milan would, or make a hiss, or a high pitched squeel so that they know you didn't like it. You can flick them on the nose too, just a light tap to let them know that the behaviour is not acceptable.

My rats liked the smell of my swiss orange hand soap and they were always tasting my hands after I washed them. I also commonly feed them baby food and yogurt off of my finger tips, so they know to be gentle with me now. Maybe you can try the same, getting them comfortable eating off of you hands, then they wont see your hands as a threat.

Always make sure you have a calm and quiet environment you're bringing them out of the cage into as well. My rats can get a little jumpy from sudden noises and we have had a couple of times where we scared them so bad that they ran back into their cage.


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