# Need help with my new rat! I'm sick of getting bit :(



## littlekakita (Dec 13, 2012)

For my birthday almost a week ago, my brother brought home a pet rat! He got it from Petco, I didn't know anything about rats.. But I am an animal lover and I've had many many different kinds of animals, so I thought it was cool that I could learn and take care of a new one! I researched all night on how to take care of them and all that good stuff. Without thinking really, I tried picking my rat up.. She ended up biting me so hard she drew blood, I bled for a good two minutes.. I decided to leave her alone for the time being.. So the next day I brought home another rat, also from Petco. (They only sold females, no where else had females). I also bought a really big cage for them. I made them meet each other, and it was awesome how well they were getting along! Even my first rat (she's albino) was starting to loosen up and not being so afraid of me! I get them to go into the cage, and everything seems fine. As days pass I try hand feeding them and trying to get them more comfortable in my home. My newer brown one is a sweetheart, she nibbles to "explore" I guess, but every single time my albino one approaches me, she bites me so hard I draw blood every time! I've been trying the shrieking "eeeeek!" noise whenever she does it, and she'll jump back and back off, but then she'll go for my finger again! It seems like she's just very curious, she doesn't seem too aggressive at all, she's just super cautious all the time, her poor eyesight  Anyways, the brown one has started to crawl on my arms and will lick me. I read to leave my hand in the cage so they can sniff me and stuff, I did that for a while, finally the albino one comes, sniffs.... And BITES. Again! I "eeeek!" she stops.. She even nibbles and keeps sniffing... She pauses... She bites me three times in a row! I shriek each time, it really hurt and I never bled so much from a bite.. I even heard a crunch at one point when she was biting.. That scared me. I bled for a longg time my fingers wouldn't stop bleeding. I've been afraid to even touch her ever since. I'll hand feed her a snack or something but I'll pull away super fast. I know it's only been a few days but I'm so tired of being bit! I don't know if I should use gloves cause people say they need to get to know my smell, but I'm so afraid of getting bitten again.. I don't want to blame her too much cause she's almost blind and probably hasn't even had human interaction before! What can I do???? Sorry for the long post by the way.. I'm new and I'm just so desperate to find answers..


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## TheRatPack8 (Dec 10, 2012)

Well I'll give you this much, your brave to stick your hand in there again( repeatedly) after being bit. Shrieking like a rat isn't going to stop the biting, this rat may have been mistreated and won't warm up to you right away. What you can do is start by just bringing treats WITHOUT TRYING TO PICK HER YET. Now make sure you do this more than once a day. Hopefully this will associate your hand with good things, then after three or four days try petting her, don't pick her up yet. Make sure for the next couple days you make a habit of every time you put your hand in the cage you give her the treat, then pet her. Then try to pick her up once she isn't scared of your hand. 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Pink eyed white rats have a reputation of being more troublesome than certain other morphs. Everyone who has ever worked with lab rats has a favorite story that involves a particular rat of legendary fierceness.

Chances are that some pink eyed white rats bite because they have trouble seeing. But in your case your rat is sniffing you, and after making completely certain that it's you, chomping intentionally on your finger. Pretty much it's fair to assume that she doesn't want you to put your hands into her cage. Or worse yet, she doesn't want you to handle her. Of course, this can't go on and biting can never be tolerated.

First, generally, you don't put your hands into your rats cage until you know for certain that it's happy to see you and will welcome you. So get gloves if necessary and or a towel and get her out of the cage and into a confined space were both you and she have some maneuvering room. Went to rats meet, they often fight for dominance. And as far as she's concerned that's what's about to happen. And you're going to settle in for a long session with your rat, keeping both gloves and towel at hand and you are going to make it very clear to her that you are her alpha human. This might take a few hours. And she is likely to withdraw and come back, and sometimes you'll give her some space and sometimes you'll get in her face. And you're not going to eep. Instead, you're going to yell no.

The purpose for this exercise is to establish yourself as the alpha human for your new rat pack. Rats do it, and they don't harbor ill feelings for each other afterwards. Once you little monster understands who's in charge she's likely to turn around and become your best friend.

After, and only after she concedes dominance to you you can flip her over and scratch her belly as a reward for being a good submissive rat. And as soon as the battle is over give her hugs and skritches. Generally, it's better to do fewer and longer bonding sessions and keep going until you make some progress rather than trying to do this in short unproductive encounters.

This isn't exactly forced socialization, inasmuch as your constantly reacting to your rats behavior. When she's nice you can give her a treat or a scritch, and when she behaves badly you can wrap her in the towel or otherwise make it physically clear to her that that kind of behavior is not to be tolerated. Remember rats are delicate animals and the object of the exercise is not to hurt your new, soon to be, best friend.

Once you have established pack order with you at the head of the pack outside of the cage, it shouldn't take too long before your rats will let you put your hands inside.

For the most part, training rats is a lot like training dogs. Both dogs and rats need to know their place in the social structure, and the only social structure that works is one with you in charge.

I realize, that this all might sound a little counterintuitive but it actually correlates to human behavior. If you are to get a new job and no one told you the boss was and no one told you who reported to you and to work for another department it would be almost impossible for you to function in that environment. From the time we are children we are raised into a well structured social environment. On your first day at school your often introduced to the principal and your teacher and your teacher's aide and you get to meet the janitor in the cafeteria workers and before the week is out you pretty much know the social pecking order in that environment. Within a few more weeks the kids on the playground will have sorted out the pecking order among the students. Sometimes things get screwed up when new kids come to your school, but overall within a very short period of time they usually fit in somewhere too.

Sometimes the head cheerleader were captain of the football team aren't always the nicest people, but more often than not there the most popular.

Good luck and don't let your rats push you around.


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