# Grabbing A Rat By The Tail



## Grotesque (Mar 19, 2014)

Oreo took off on me yet again. This time she squeezed under the door and ran into a part of the house that I felt was dangerous for her to be in. It was the storage room for the Ebay business. I knew once she was in there, she was going to be lost for good. 

I FINALLY got her cornered and since she will not allow me to pick her up, I had to be really careful about grabbing her. I don't care how many rats you've had... I guarantee you've NEVER seen a rat that can run and squirm like this one. 

Anyway, I grabbed at her, she slipped my grip and I grabbed her tail. I was careful not to LIFT her but I was holding it and she was trying to run away from me like a cartoon mouse caught by a cat. 

I don't know if I hurt her... she SEEMS fine... but I know it was a terrible thing to do. Immersion is not going well with her. The more I do it, the more she withdraws from not only me, but the other rats too. 

The poor girl seems depressed and my chasing her around the house doesn't help the situation. Just a rant. Thanks for listening.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

I don't think this is always a bad thing, depending how done, but it is risky. The main thing that can happen is if you grab them by the tip of their tail you can deglove the tail a bit. As you get closer to the body, there should be less risk of this. If I had a rat that I feared would be lost and gone forever and had the opportunity to restrain it by holding the tail you can bet I would hold the tail. In less life threatening situations I would not do it.


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## Adeliek (Jul 28, 2014)

I've done this twice to do different rats when they were between 5-8 weeks old, in those kind of situations you just panic and grab whatever you can. If she seems fine then she probably is, don't worry about it too much. I felt bad for ages after I did it!


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## Pandorascaisse (Mar 12, 2014)

I always wondered if rats had enough pulling power to deglove their tails themselves (not that I want anyone to try it ever). 

A degloved tail is much much better than her getting out and lost and possibly running into wilds or predators. I think in life-threatening situations like this, it's not _okay_ nor _recommended _to go yanking on a rats' tail, but it's definitely better than the alternatives and if it happens... your rats will forgive you. And their lives will be saved, depending on the situation.


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## Akarah (Sep 2, 2014)

I agree. I probably would have done the same if it was a situation where the rat would have been gone, never seen again. You were just acting on impulse and trying to save her.


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## Hey-Fay (Jul 8, 2013)

I've done the same to my jumpy nervous girl a few times and every time I made sure to grab her quickly around the middle. I always panic because the last thing I wasn't is a degloved tail.


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## Jessiferatu (Apr 30, 2014)

She's probably fine. I've had to do this with young girls a few times, just to hold them still for a second until I can scoop them up. Little boogers are fast and squirmy.


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## livenatso (Sep 14, 2014)

I've unfortunately had to grab my rats tails a few times... Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do 

Here's a story for u guys from back when I went to pick my rats up from the shelter:

I remember the second I lifted Rune from his little cage he leapt from my hands and ran for his life. If I hadn't grabbed his tail that rat probably would've gone feral and never be seen again... (The shelter kept all the small animals in a barn)

Holding onto your rat's tail probably hasn't hurt them because in my panic at the barn I yanked on my rat's tail pretty hard and to my surprise no damage had been done although I'm sure it wasn't pleasant for him...

I hate to imagine just how much force you'd have to put on a tail for it to deglove.


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## Rat-1- (Jul 22, 2012)

If you have to grab their tail, and they're running away, it's not that big of a problem. Rats are escape artists, so it's sometimes necessary :/


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## Zabora (Jun 8, 2014)

Like a few said so long as its by the base of the tail and you arnt lifting not a horrible thing. I dont know how you are doing immersion but have you sat in the bathtub with her. Just grab a book or your phone to amuse yourself and let her come to you. It will take time. We are doing immersion with one of our little boys we just got. He fear poops any time I come near him so we are trying to get him ok with treats and proximatiy like we did with Marlowe


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## Genisay (Jul 2, 2021)

Okay, glad to know that it probably won't hurt them too much if you have to grab near the base of their tail.
One of my little boys made a jump from my chair to my bed and he missed catching on by just a hair and slid down the side of the bed instead. Getting them out from under my bed is really hard once they get back here, and when I finally managed to make a grab for him, I missed his body and got his tail instead and held onto that till I could get a better grip on him.
I think besides scaring him, he's okay, but he got my hand pretty good while he was trying to run away, even though he usually comes to me just fine most other times. Granted, the one that got under the bed has always been more on the skittish side.


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