# Responding to bites? Still afraid to handle rats after nearly two months together!



## Topple (Jan 11, 2018)

I've asked about biting here before, but my situation has changed a lot since then.

My rats are around three months old, and I've had them for about seven weeks now. Initially I did not handle them much, because I was new to rats and they made me very nervous. I know this is bad, and it's all on me. I've been trying hard to become more comfortable and they are getting more friendly with me, but I still have not taken them out of the cage to play! (They do have a huge double cage for only three rats, with lots of toys and places to hide, so I don't think they need exercise as much as they need to socialize and explore new things). I am mostly afraid of losing them entirely (I have tried rat proofing my small apartment, but I am not entirely confident that I've done a great job) but also afraid because I know having them out of the cage will make me anxious and I might get bitten when I move them around and they're feeling a bit on edge. 

I've been getting bolder with them over the last few weeks, giving them more confident and frequent pets and trying to entice them to crawl up my arms out of the cage. I would say maybe.... one out of every five or six times I try to interact with them (usually with a treat in my hand) one of them will run up and just indiscriminately bite at me, getting my fingertip. So, maybe like, once a day. They always seem confused afterwards, and it doesn't really _hurt _but it is getting progressively more painful every time and I am getting more and more worried. 

I feel pretty sure that it is not meant to be aggressive. No blood is drawn but they do scrape my skin a little and freak me out, and then I fall back a few steps with being comfortable handling them. I really really really want to start socializing better with my rats and spending more quality time with them outside of the cage, but my fear of bites is preventing this from happening. I am also worried I've missed my window and now they will never trust me because too much time has passed. 

Are bites just unavoidable? I feel so torn between my nervousness and my desire to take proper care of my boys. I recently bought some gardening gloves for handling them, thinking it would calm my nerves, but they seem to scare the rats out so I prefer not to wear them. Any kind of advice would help - I am living all on my own in a new city and bought the rats to help me adjust, and now I realize that I don't really have any social support to help me deal with learning how to live with them. 

Primary question: what is the proper response when a rat bites you? I try giving a little shriek and they stop, but it always happens again the next day. My boyfriend has suggested flicking them with my finger but that seems sort of mean, given that I don't think they are trying to hurt me.


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Depends on the bite. I made a video on how to deal with rat nips (in this video I show you how I get through to my girl Cookie that biting HARD on my bandage is not acceptable and HURTS me. Cookie is NOT aggressive in the least, but started out as a bit of a nibbler and nipper. Even after she learned to not nip, she reacted strongly to socks and bandages. So I decided to video how I taught her to quickly NOT bite bandages (this was also her first time being allowed to chew on the bandage, so you can see how quickly she gets the message)), so you could give this video a watch to see if it helps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UDW5PLvr40 But basically, if it’s a nip, making a loud noise (ouch! or eep! or even no! works), then pushing back on the rat to tell them “no!” (people say “just tough it out” but I think that’s silly - how the heck is the rat supposed to know they’re hurting you if you don’t react?) usually works. Repeating this just a few times usually gets the message through very well. If it’s an actual bite, I find avoiding situations where the rat bites and offering food to distract them in situations when they’d usually bite (so before you reach into the cage, before you touch the rat, before you rearrange the cage, etc.) helps change their tune. After so much experience not biting and consuming treats when you mess with the cage/rat, they develope a new habit of not biting and instead start associating you near their cage with positive things. But I’d bet that if it’s just when you offer food, then it’s probably the rat accidentally missing the food and getting your finger. Rats get excited like that about food, and my experience hand-feeding wild squirrels has taught me that skittish rodents that want your food will just lunge towards he food smelling area, and sometimes get you by accident (almost got bit by a squirrel that way ). So if your very nervous, skip all that. Instead, get a metal spoon and feed liquid treat off it. Then switch to feeding liquid treats off your knuckles, and finally off your fingers. And by then, you’ll trust your rats much more, which should make you more confident with handling them


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## elli (Mar 2, 2018)

I recommend bringing them to a secure, smaller room in your house, like your bathroom. Place toys/places to hide/fleece around and sit down with your rats and get to know them outside of their cage. Talk to them, engage them, give them treats. If you are not comfortable carrying your rats in your hands you can try offering them a basket to travel in for the ride. 

Just by spending time with them they will realize that you are a sentient being like themselves and they will start communicating with you in other ways than biting, hopefully. 

When I first got rats i went to the pet shop all excited, and went home with two terrified rats that would bite me and draw blood, poop and pee out of fear and they refused to be petted. It took a week for them to stop biting completely. When they bit i withdrew my hand and made a scrdeetching noise to signalise that they had caused me pain. 

It is also important that you do not reward your ratties for biting! If you pick them up and they bite you out of fear, and you place them back in their cage to be left in peace, they'll never learn that you're actually not a huge invading monster but instead think of you as another being they can communicate and cohabitat with. 

I do not judge you for not handling your rats enough early on, this situation is very fixable, the main point is that you should spend time with them outside of their cage. No animal is really meant to live in a cage. Not everyone has the opportunity to let their rats roam freely around the house, but I've found it quite manageable to let my rats free range on the first floor of the house most of the day, except when I'm sleeping or at work. It is a lot easier to house-proof your rats than to rat-proof your house. Keep in mind that I got my petstore rats quite recently, I've had them since late december, and the terrified biters are no more. Instead they've turned into two beautiful, social ratties. They can roam freely around the house without destroying anything, they are litter-trained and they do not try to escape me anymore, because they enjoy cohabitating with me. 

Now, if you think there is a big chance you will get bitten during the first period of spending time with your ratties in your secure room, put on some gloves and shove your fear into a tiny ball and act confident. With the gloves you will be quite protected, and after maybe half an hour you might realize that the gloves aren't necessary anymore. 

Even though the area my rats free range in is decently sized and pretty secure, there are several dangers there that could potentially harm them. They know that they are not allowed to gnaw on wires, clothes etc. and I suppose if they really wanted to run away from me they could. There are several nooks and crannies they could get behind, but a rat that is properly bonded to you will usually prefer living comfortably with their human instead of leaving. I have spent a lot of time and effort teaching my rats what is allowed and not, I have experience in raising puppies, and I find that rats can me trained in much of the same manner. Rats are just as capable as dogs, if not more. Have high expectations for them and they will suprise you. 

Good luck!


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## Phoene (Dec 21, 2017)

When I got my first girls (only about 5 months ago now) one of them bit me quite a few times. She would draw lots of blood and it actually made me regret getting them. I didn't know think about this forum so I just found my own way of fixing things with her. Since she was biting for no reason other than getting me away (she wasn't scared and she would come out of the cage, sniff me, then bit and draw blood). I put a pair of gardening gloves on and just kept touching her though she would bite and push the gloves away. After only about a day she learned there was no point to biting. She has not bitten since then. Since it worked so well for me I would suggest doing the same but keep in mine that I am not that experienced with rats as of yet, give me another 5 years I think. Anyway, I would use the gloves and at first just leave my hand with the glove on in the cage and let your boys sniff around it.
When Wren still bit my mother took her to the vet while I was in school and the vet picked her up, held her down, and restrained her with no problem so I think it also has a lot to do on how you act with them. If they think you are confident they will be easier.

Above all remember to not give up! Even though you have not been interacting with them from the start you can get perfectly snuggly, sweet boys on your hands! I trust Wren, who I thought I would never be able to hold let alone let my little cousins hold, and would let her go on their shoulders if I knew the kids would be good. With enough work they will be great pets!


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## Steffy (Oct 6, 2017)

I have little experience with biting rats (although when I first picked up Blazy from the RSPCA I stuck my hand in the pile of hay she was sitting in and she gave me a littel nip, more a "hey what's that/who are you" nip, than a bite, it didn't even occur to me she could bite me...I was probably a bit naive and possibly lucky) but I was thinking it might help you if you had someone experienced and not scared showing you how to interact with your rats/any rats in a positive way. 

I had zero expereicne before we got Blazy and was very reluctant to pick her up because she didn't like it and I was too slow, scared I would hurt her and just not confident to do it properly while my husband (who had rats as a teenager) had not issues and just grabbed her quickly and confidently without any fuss on either side (he also has much bigger hands than me and can pick her up in one hand while I need two to scoop her up- she is big and fat). It took me a while to learn picking her up properly but it helped to see that (and how) someone else could do it.

Could you get in touch with a breeder or a rescue organisation in your city and ask them to give you an opportuntiy to see how they handle their rats and possibly let you handle some friendly ones? Maybe someone would be even prepared to help you with yours? 
If you were in Sydney I'd be more than happy to help you out!


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## Phoene (Dec 21, 2017)

Steffy had a good idea about having someone else hold them to show you how. Though I doubt it if you live here me (RI in the U.S) I also would be happy to see if I can show you how.


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## Topple (Jan 11, 2018)

Thanks everyone so much for these responses! Based on all of your ideas I now have plans (after I clean my bathroom floor really well) to take them in there with me tomorrow with some toys and hiding places and just spend time with them on the floor like that to see if we can make progress. I will wear gardening gloves and use a spoon to give treats while I'm still nervous but maybe will be able to ditch them in the same day, if I get brave. If it goes well I am going to try to do this every day. If it does not go well.... I will still try to do it every day, or at least as many days as I can build up the courage.

I unfortunately have to take one of my boys to the vet soon, so while I have not found any rat breeders near me at all, I might try to ask the vet if she can quickly show me how to pick them up properly. I know vets might show a more restraining hold than necessary but anything at all would be helpful right now, and there are videos on YouTube I have been watching which kind of help, although it is sort of hard to get the right idea from a video alone so I am still nervous. I think my slow reach is part of the problem but it's hard when you are not exactly sure where to grab!

I also now feel pretty sure it is eagerness for food that makes them bite. When I hold out a hard treat on a spoon they lunge at it just the same way they do at my hand, so that strategy helps for now. Hopefully I can move to gloves and teach them that it is not okay to lunge, and then move back to my hands.


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## Steffy (Oct 6, 2017)

That sounds all really good and like you are on the right track! Shame you have not rat breeders near you but asking the vet is a very good idea. Hope your boy is ok!
Please keep us posted, it would be good to hear how you go


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## Imjessiegee (Oct 5, 2017)

I may be late to this conversation, so sorry! But when I first got my two boys which was in September, one of them took to me right away and automatically crawled up my arm and onto my shoulder. This is my first EVER pair so I’m still getting used to this. My second was a little biatch. Like whenever I went near him it was an automatic bite that bled out. He even bit my mum so she was afraid of him. I almost felt like taking him back because everyone suggested waiting and I felt like everytime I waited, it was getting worse. So I decided to start off with instead of putting my palm near the cage bars, I used the back of my hand. Just to let him sniff, I’d put the entire back of my hand a few cm’s away from the bars and gradually got closer and closer. I read the skin on the back was harder to grab if you made a fist. Once he stopped biting through the bars, I put spray can cream on the back of my hand, and let him lick it off and then immediately took it back out after the cream was gone. I’d tried this for a few weeks. Slowly he got better, and now we’re at the stage of NO bites at all. He’s like a complete different rat, I can pick him up without fear anymore and I’ve not been bitten by a rat in the past two/three months. My guy couldn’t get out for exercise because he bit and freaked when I picked him up so now he gets out more frequently to run his fatness off.


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## Topple (Jan 11, 2018)

Thanks for the input!! I actually started reaching in with a closed fist a few times to let them smell me, it is way less scary than exposing all of my fingers and they don't seem nearly as eager to bite the back of my hand. So that seems like a good strategy. They still get really over-eager and zany about food but I think as long as I keep approaching them slowly and being firm we can make this work.

I still haven't been able to get them into the bathroom or another safe area to let them roam. I am trying to scoop them into a box and carry them in it, but they always hop out before I can cover it up. They are so fast! I think I need some sort of carrier with a closed lid. I am being outsmarted by my rats on a nearly daily basis but I will do what I can to keep adjusting my tactics until I can make them love me, gosh darn it


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