# How to deal with cage aggression?



## kyzer (Apr 28, 2013)

My rat Ivy has launched for my hand twice now in the last two weeks when I put it in the cage. The first time I gave her the benefit of the doubt because I thought maybe my hands smelled different or I caught her off guard, but she done it again today when I was fixing the cage liner. 

She doesn't bite me when my hands are at the front of the cage, like when she comes to the front and I lift her out or if I'm petting her while she's there. But when I put my hand further into the back part of the cage she runs at it and bites me. She's never done this before. She hasn't drawn blood but it is a fairly hard bite thats broken the skin. It might not be serious now but I feel like I should be nipping it while its starting before it escalates and gets worse. 

Ivy is fine outside of the cage. The only thing I've noticed is that she doesn't like being held much, and prefers her own company rather than the company of her cage mate or me picking her up when she's outside of the cage, but I figured that was just her personality. Maybe there's more to it? I'm supposed to be adopting a new female rat today and she's very young, so I'm kind of worried about how Ivy will react to her when it comes to introductions in the cage in a few weeks time. Any help will be appreciated ???

Edit: Forgot to mention she will also chew the bars and bite your hand really hard if you put it up to the cage bars, wrote about it on this forum a while back.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

First of all, if Ivy is an adult girl and the new rat is a pup, forget the introduction until your new rat is at least 12 weeks old... 

Second Ivy is going alpha on you. She's setting the rules and things are about to get even worse. Until you show her the proper respect and submission she's going to get more and more aggressive towards you. Unless you are about to turn over the day to day operations of your household to a rat, this isn't likely to work. And if your new rat were to bond with you rather than her, she's going to really hurt, if not kill your new rat.

You need to fix Ivy fast. Check out my sticky thread on immersion... that will show you how it's done. The longer you wait the worse it will get.

Best luck.


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## kyzer (Apr 28, 2013)

Thanks for your reply!

The new rat is around 10 weeks old now so I will be waiting a few weeks until introductions, possibly a lot longer depending on the progress with Ivy 

I tried immersion with her about two months ago after reading it on this forum. It took about 3 hours in my bathroom until she started coming over to me, and eventually she let me pet her and began sitting on my lap and bruxing. I took that as a sign she was immersed, and she seemed more sociable for the few days after, but she quickly became skittish again. What would be a sign that she is fully immersed and respects me as the leader? :/ 

Also, what should I do when she bites? I was told I should keep a hold of her to show her biting me won't make me go away, but I'm not sure.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Most immersions take way longer than 3 hours... Three hours is a normal play session for most rats. But still if you made progress that's great... but if you were thinking 3 hours for immersion.. how many hours a day do you spend with Ivy? 

Immersion is basically the start of training not the end. After immersion there's name and command training that can take a few hours each day for a while and then there's daily play sessions. You can't be the alpha if you aren't there. And immersion only works if you follow it up with daily play and training.

Now rat discipline is a touchy topic. It starts with you yelling NO!, moves on to a gentle head bop, up to a firm but not painful side slap, on to a towel grab and restrain and eventually to the toss the rat against the far wall method I accidentally came across when my part wild rat bit me. It wasn't intentional, but as a reflex it worked a treat and I never got bit again. Somewhere between exposing my handguts to the open air and sliding down to the floor, my rat learned that biting the hand that feeds her was a very bad idea. She came crawling back to me all apologetic and contrite before I even stemmed the flow of my own blood.

Now, you should always try to avoid rat abuse... and try less aggressive measures first. But remember, a biting rat is not a pet and should not be kept in a home near children or other humans and pets. Every rat will eventually escape or need it's cage cleaned and a rat bite in the wrong place can very well turn into an emergency room visit quickly and can lead to stitches, scarring and disfigurement or even blindness. 

I realize you want to always be the nice rat owner and most of the time love and rewards is the way to go. But rat biting is what I consider life or death for a rat. I love my rats so I take biting dead seriously. You do whatever it takes to save your rats life, even if it isn't always your first option.

Once you get your rat fixed, then you pour on the love and attention and lots of play and training time so things don't go backwards again.

Best luck.


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## kyzer (Apr 28, 2013)

I will usually let them out around my room for an hour in the morning before I go out, then about an hour and a half to 2 hours in the evening time to run about. My room is really safe so I could let them out 24/7 but Ivy is an avid chewer and amazing climber so I'd probably come home to the room shredded to pieces! 

During free range time I usually sit on the floor or bed and my other rat holly will come over to me all the time to play and get cuddles. Ivy will come over for a look sometimes but doesn't seem to like being held or played with, she gets startled easily and runs off if I make any sudden movements. Because of this I've always let her come to me when she wants so I don't frighten her, but I know now I should have spent more time making Ivy play with me, even if she didn't like it at first.

I will start immersion training this evening, and will spend much longer with her. I think the problem last time was I didn't follow up with commands etc, I went back to normal play time. I'll also try the firm no and see how she reacts to that, hopefully she gets the message quick. 

Thank you so much for your help, me and Ivy really appreciate it!


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Best luck.


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